Nanami asks, "OOC Trumping Nanami first, right?"   

Beowulf says, "OOC Yep."   

You trump Nanami. She's in her office.   

Nanami says, "Good morning, Beowulf."   

Beowulf says, "Good morning, Aunt Nanami. Do you have a 
moment? I seem to have stumbled across one of the objects we 
were talking about the other day."     

She nods.  "I'm not too busy."     

Beowulf asks, "Right. Could you pull us through?"     

She holds out her hand and pulls you through.     

You're now in her office.   

Beowulf looks around to make sure no one's there.   

Beowulf picks up the jewelry box and sets it on Nanami's desk. 
"This was named Tirthos, Ring of Storms. A Lion spikard, 
apparently."   

Nanami nods and pulls out a pair of spectacles which she puts 
on, studying the jewelry box with them, then opening it and 
examining the ring.  "And where did you find this?" 

Beowulf says, "CAFAM."   

Nanami blinks.  "How much did you pay for it?"   

Beowulf says, "1 Sun."   

Beowulf says, "Fortunately, we got to it before the other 
groups did."   

Nanami shakes her head.  "Very strange."  She closes the box. 
"I will have to study this in more detail, but I think it is 
indeed a spikard."   

Beowulf nods. "Given that at least three other groups were 
apparently after it, I felt it was best to pick it up 
regardless, especially at that price."   

Nanami opens a drawer and pulls out a purse. She extracts a 
Sun and passes it to you.  "There you go."   

Beowulf says, "Apparently the Chaos Ninja Team Blackwing was 
after it; we saw them heading to the proper section, and 
Mutsumi intercepted a trump call by a team working for Balor." 

Beowulf blinks, and takes the coin. "Thank you, Aunt; I wasn't 
really expecting to be reimbursed."   

Nanami purses her lips.  "Balor.  Delightful."   

Beowulf says, "Balor seemed to think that Bloq Rebmaquois had 
also sent a team to recover the ring."   

Nanami asks, "Do any of these factions know you are the one 
who carried it off?"   

Beowulf says, "Mitsune used duplicates of herself to distract 
the chaos team; the... odd group of individuals saw us but 
appeared to be looting another aisle after we switched the 
aisle signs."   

Beowulf says, "We ran into a group of mermaids that might have 
been the Rebmaquois people, but that was in the food section, 
well away from the magical jewelry."   

Nanami asks, "Odd group?"   

Beowulf says, "Yes; a team of four individuals, by the name of 
Knuckles, Teflon Billy... I didn't catch the name of the large 
armored man or the female priestess."   

Beowulf says, "Evidently they were warned to expect the Dread 
Pirate Beowulf, but didn't have the slightest idea what he'd 
look like." He smiles slightly, and dryly.   

Nanami frowns.   

Nanami says, "Well, it wouldn't be the first time I've seen 
people turn out not to be dead."   

Beowulf says, "Dead?" He blinks.   

Nanami says, "A group of two dwarves, a woman, and an armored 
man calling themselves Knuckles, Teflon Billy, El Ravager, and 
Justina showed up at the Gate of Revolution 40 years ago, 
trying to capture or kill Shizumaru for the bounty on his 
head."   

Nanami says, "All four died, including one, El Ravager, being 
shoved onto the Pattern."   

Beowulf says, "That... matches the description, yes."   

Nanami says, "It would appear that in some manner, they have 
evaded death."   

Beowulf just boggles a bit. "Shoved onto the Pattern... my 
goodness." His eyes narrow for a moment. "The priestess 
invoked Halthor in her blessing. I wonder if that's 
significant, given the new role of Halthor in the City of 
Brass? It was Halthor that supposedly warned them to be on the 
lookout for the Dread Pirate Beowulf."   

Nodding curtly, Nanami drums her fingers on the desk briefly, 
then says, "I can't see why a cow goddess of the Efreet would 
use human and dwarf agents, but...there may be a connection.  
We shall have to see, I suppose."   

Beowulf nods. "It seems there was more going on than met the 
eye... quite frankly, when we first encountered them at the 
restaurant, they seemed too... well, incompetent, to be taken 
seriously. They were talking about retrieving the spikard in a 
voice loud enough to be heard halfway across the restaurant." 
He looks bemused.   

Nanami looks thoughtful.   

Nanami says, "I will look into this."   

Beowulf says, "They also appeared to have a lesser spikard in 
their possession; a gold band with a silver wheel on it, 
spokes protruding out past the hub."   

Beowulf says, "Of course, it's also possible that these are 
just shadows of the ones who showed up at the Gate of 
Revolution."   

Nanami nods. "Or possibly those were shadows of this group."   

Beowulf nods back. "Either way. There was something... almost 
archtypical about them."   

Nanami asks, "The primal idiots?"   

Beowulf smiles. "Perhaps."   

Beowulf says, "Though the priestess didn't seem particularly 
idiotic, unless you count going around with the other three."   

Beowulf brings out the white gold ring. "Also, could you have 
a look at this one? It was labeled as the Keystone to the Arch 
of Time."   

Beowulf says, "The Arch of Time is a shadow we were warned to 
stay away from at Panopticon, because it had somewhat 
dangerous time fluctuations. I was wondering if this ring 
might somehow have control over time, and went ahead to pick 
it up." 

Nanami looks thoughtful and takes it.   

Nanami examines it through the spectacles as well.   

Nanami scratches her head.  "It appears to be an ordinary ring 
of white gold.  Of course, it's possible white gold may have 
certain special properties IN that shadow."   

Beowulf says, "Hm. Well, I can always talk to the people at 
Panopticon about it. And whatever else it is, at least it's a 
nice white gold ring." 

Beowulf brings out the My First Spikard. "Finally, I picked 
this up for Jacqui, after hearing that she'd set Thoric's bed 
on fire with sorcery." He smiles slightly. "I was hoping it 
might... well, give her a bit more control."   

Nanami laughs.   

Nanami says, "Anything that could help would be good."   

Beowulf smiles. "Indeed."   

Beowulf hands it to Nanami to take a look.   

Nanami examines the ring and smiles.  "Yes, this should be of 
some help to her."   

Beowulf asks, "I'd present it myself, but I suspect it'd still 
be wiser to stay out of Amber at the moment; could you drop it 
off for her, Mutsumi? And the fertilizer and fishing rods?"   

Mutsumi nods.  "No problem, Beowulf."   

Beowulf says, "I am a bit surprised that reputation spread so 
fast, but... oh, well. Anything else I can do for you, Aunt? 
If not, we should probably head to Panopticon and check on the 
ring." 

Nanami says, "Good luck with your investigations."   

Beowulf nods. "Thank you, Aunt." He looks over at Mitsune and 
Lily. "Ready?" He brings out his trump for Panopticon.   

Mitsune nods.  "Ready!"   

Lily says, "Let's go."   

Beowulf trumps them to Panopticon. 

Blink, you're at Panopticon in one of the great plazas.   

The school spreads out around you in all directions.   

Beowulf says, "You know, Lily, they do have a nice night 
school program... I think you'd enjoy it here."   

Beowulf says, "Professor Dillig was the one who issued the 
advisory on the Arch of Time; let's go see him."   

You head over to COB #4, where his office is.   

By good luck, he is in, busy grading papers when you arrive.   

He looks up and says, "Ahh, hello there."   

Mitsune starts poking around the man's office, looking at all 
his interesting trinkets.  Lily says, "Hello."   

Beowulf says, "Greetings, professor; it's good to see you 
again."   

Beowulf sighs. "Mitsune, please be careful, all right?"   

Beowulf says, "I recently came across something that 
apparently is connected to the Arch of Time; since you wrote 
the advisory on it, I thought I should bring it to you."   

He blinks.  "Have stupid people been making off with bits of 
it again?"   

Beowulf says, "Perhaps. I found this ring at CAFAM that is 
purported to be the Keystone to the Arch of Time."   

Beowulf brings the white gold ring out for the professor to 
examine.   

His eyes widen slightly.  "Interesting.  White gold has 
unusual properties within the Shadow of the Arch of Time.  
Rather like a spikard which only functions there and in 
adjacent shadows."   

Beowulf blinks. "My, indeed. Could you tell me a little more 
about the Arch of Time?" 

He asks, "Have you had this x-rayed?"   

Beowulf says, "Not yet, no."   

Beowulf says, "What could we determine with an x-ray?" He 
looks slightly bemused.   

"I'm curious to determine if it perhaps contains some sort of 
internal structures or circuitry."   

Beowulf says, "That's an interesting thought. I'd had it 
submitted to magical analysis, which didn't find anything, but 
not to a technological analysis." 

Beowulf asks, "Is there an x-ray machine here?"   

"Not here in my office," he says, getting up.  "Let's take it 
down to the lab." 

Mitsune holds up a hyper-Rubik's Cube and starts fiddling with 
it.  He grabs it away from her and resets it.  "You're moving 
entire shadows when you fiddle with that.  Be careful."   

Beowulf follows the professor down to the lab, making sure to 
drag Mitsune along to keep an eye on her.   

The lab is full of various scientific equipment.   

Dr. Dillig takes the ring and proceeds to run a series of 
tests on it. 

Beowulf looks on with interest, and keeps an eye on Mitsune. 

Mitsune sits quietly, pouting.   

Finally, he announces, "Well, it appears to simply be an 
ordinary white gold ring."  He hands it back to you.  "Well, 
if it is the keystone, that might explain why the Arch is so 
unstable."   

Beowulf asks, "I suppose that means it should be returned to 
the Arch shortly, yes?"   

He says, "Well, returning it properly would require trying to 
take the Arch apart enough to insert it.  Since we still don't 
fully understand how the Arch works, that could be a dangerous 
proposition."   

Lily asks, "What is the Arch of Time?"   

Beowulf hmmms. Yes.   

Dr. Dillig says, "It's a construct similar to the Eye of 
Harmony, except that it's unstable, unpredictable, unreliable, 
and dangerous.  The time flow in the shadows around it is 
controlled by it, causing them to fluctuate wildly."   

Beowulf hmmms. "What, exactly, can it do?"   

"The centerpiece is an arch which can, in theory, be set to 
specific times and places, enabling you to step through it to 
those places.  In practice, it never works quite right, and 
about a third of the time, anyone stepping through simply is 
never heard from again."   

Beowulf winces. "Not for casual experiementation."   

Beowulf asks, "How long do you think it would take for an 
expedition to visit the Arch and repair it?"   

Beowulf asks, "And how much effect, overall, is it having -- 
both on the surrounding area and on the cosmos?"   

He sighs.  "I don't know.  It's dangerous to visit.  But I'll 
bring it up at the next faculty meeting.  As to the effect, 
the Arch distorts shadows for about six hours of travel around 
it.  Beyond that, it doesn't seem to have much effect."   

Nanami says, "OOC Well, I can't stay on too much longer, but I 
can run you for a little while if you're going to stick 
around, TR." 

Beowulf says, "Well, that's something of a relief. I was 
afraid it'd be yet another cosmos-spanning thread."   

Beowulf says, "OOC If you want, we can cut here -- sounds like 
the discussion is almost over -- and you can run TR."