Kanna OOCly says, "So, lesse, Kanna"

Beowulf OOCly bows. "Gonna run into each other in the corridors again?"

Kanna OOCly says, "So, lesse, Kanna and Lucien and co have just returned
from Rebma/Nedra and stuff, and are now in Ember.  Kanna's probably 
taking
this time to get cleaned off, as they -were- in a sewer for most of the
day... would Ruka be ameinable to helping clean off? :)"

Kanna OOCly says, "(I have a feeling you're either gonna have to come up
to Ember or try Trumping Kanna to get a hold of her, as she's still 
doing
post-Rebma/Nedra stuff.)"

John says, "OOC Of course :)"

Kanna OOCly says, "Yay! :)"

John says, "OOC I'm assuming Beowulf would probably trump Kanna to check
in with her once he'd completed his mission  Or vice versa :)"

John says, "OOC I think we can assume Kanna spent the rest of day 63
reporting in to Mom, getting cleaned up, helping Lucien check the
inventory, etc, etc.  MPS, etc, etc. :)"

Beowulf says, "OOC Hm, right. :) Works for me. I do want to get a
patternwalk in to clean out and backup, so that should hopefully get us
pretty close to synched."

Kanna OOCly says, "Actually, I thought we were on day 64 now, John."

John says, "Oh wait, you ARE on day 64.  Color me potato head."

Lian OOCly arrives in Amber quite a bit after Bey, so he has had time 
for
his talk with Makoto and such. Building big shiny Elder Signs takes 
time.

Kanna OOCly says, "Kanna would be patternwalking too, but it depends on
how soon this all is from having gotten out of the water."

Kanna OOCly says, "As she'll want to rest up before doing it, etc."

John says, "Probably they get hold of you after you finish going and
cleaning up and doing your patternwalk, for simplicity's sake."

Beowulf says, "OOC Works for me. :)"

Kanna OOCly says, "Aww, okay.  But I can deal. I'll have just sent Ruka
off to see Aunt Kozue then, so he can tell her the Rebma News in Person,
not through trump.  And he'd have a standard deck by now to get back to
Shalomar after that."

John nods.

Kanna OOCly says, "(and gotten the Knife back, and exchanged smoochies
with him, etc. And asked him if he feels like a fast-time vacation after
the next slew of missions, if Aunt Kozue allows.)"

Kanna OOCly says, "(He'll have to ask her, of course, but that's why
fast-time. ^_^ )"

John says, "OOC Heh :)  He"

John says, "OOC Heh :)  He'd love to take one with you."

Lian . o O ( OOC: Why am I not surprised? :P )

Kanna OOCly says, "We may also have Lian and Thropan along as well, but
she's got thoughts about that. ^_^  It'd be fun, we could stage mock 
naval
combats...."

Kanna OOCly says, "But anyway."

John says, "Heh :)"

Beowulf awws, and wonders if he's gonna get left out again. ^_-;;

Kanna OOCly says, "So Kanna's in her rooms in Ember, 'chilling out',
etc."

Kanna OOCly says, "Well, mebby we'd invite you and Lily too!  We'll see
how it goes. ^_^"

Beowulf says, "OOC Uh-huh. :)"

Beowulf says, "OOC Well, you did say you wanted me to see some of the
Diggers' archeological digs... :)"

=====
=====

Chris pages, "My ... family vacation? ;)" to you.

You page, "Well, bring Bey and Lily in AFTER Serious Talks between girls
and boys about relationships... ;)" to Chris.

Chris pages, "That works. Our boys and girls can team up against them in
the naval games then. ;)" to you.

====
====

Kanna OOCly says, "That's true, too. :)   Wasn't thinking of Jade
actually, but a specific 'vacation' shadow we have planned, but Jade and
Earth-Realm are also 'owned' by them now, so we can get between 'em all 
no
probs with fast-time adjustment.  But anyway, we can discuss that later.
:)"

Lian says, "OOC: Wait and see. ;)"

Beowulf OOCly nods. Waiting is. :)

========================================
========================================

Kanna is in her rooms in Castle Ember, going over the re-organized
inventory reports of Derith's Loot, as Gabrielle did catalouging when 
she
pulled everything through, but they need to double-check against the
original Derith record.

Kanna hrms, pondering the possible uses of Giant Natalus Shells (12),
listed in the inventory.

Beowulf finishes his talk with Makoto, and decides to try checking with
Kanna to see if she's gotten back from wherever-it-was she'd been 
hopping
around all the last many days.

Beowulf trumps Kanna.

Kanna . o O (Diving Bells, perhaps?  Or just big object's de-art... eh?
Bey?)

Kanna accepts the trump, and smiles.  "Hey, Beowulf!  How's things?  You
and the gang all right?"

Beowulf smiles a little tiredly, face showing some strain but also some
signs of relaxation. "Well, we finished the latest mission, no one was
seriously hurt... some personal and personnel problems came up, but
hopefully have made a start on fixing them."

Beowulf says, "Along the way, I've been picking up a few things you
probably ought to know about... want to come talk about it in the
Closet? Among other things, there's a few scholastic examples here for 
you
to look at." His smile shifts to a wry grin.

Beowulf says, "It would also be good if we didn't lose any more time, 
and
we could make the chat fasttime there."

Kanna sobers, and nods.  "You want to come through and talk about it? 
Just
finished a mission myself, and I've got some time before I was thinking 
of
figuring out -what- to do next, which likely means helping you guys and
the folks down in Chaos."

Kanna nods.  "How about you come up here, sis can guard the Bag, and we
can hop in?"

Beowulf nods. "Works for me." He reaches out a hand. "Pull me through?"

Kanna takes Beowulf's hand, and pulls him out into the slightly higher
heat of her rooms in Castle Ember.  The Knife is resting, sheathed,
against her desk, as is Beryllina; her desk itself is covered with what
looks to be inventory listings and drawings.

Beowulf raises an eyebrow at the clutter. "My, you *have* been busy."

Beowulf asks, "We should probably get Lian in on this as well; she
should hopefully be done with her cleanup by now. Mind if I call her and
see if she can come in?"

Kanna hehs a bit.  "We've had something of a bit of a Breakthrough in 
the
Rebman situation... some good, some..." She quiets.  "Well, I'll fill 
you
in once we're inside."  She pauses, and tilts her head. "You seen Lian
lately?  It's been a while since I saw her last, back in Kadath."  She
goes and straightens her inventory papers, bundling them up with the
drawings.

Kanna blinks, and grins.  "Go -right- ahead, Bey.  That'll give me some
extra time to get extra note papers."

Kanna winks, and goes and gets some more of her notebooks and
sketchbooks, adding that to the inventory pile.

Beowulf grins and starts to trump Lian. "You'll hear about it all
shortly... hello, Lian?"

Kanna nods, and grabs Beryllina and Knife, strapping them on.  She looks
down at her copy of her report to her mother on the Bloc Rebmaquois
situation, purses her lips, and then adds that to the stack of papers.

It takes a few seconds, but finally there's contact. "Hello? Oh, Bey. I
just finished here."

Beowulf says, "Ah? Good. Hopefully you reduced the temple to slag,
right?" He grins nastily.

Lian grins. "I'm now at the center of Leng's largest Elder Sign."

Beowulf cackles nastily. "Ooooooh, nice. I'm here with Kanna; care to 
come
up for some long fasttime conversation in Fibber's Closet? "

Kanna gets her backpack to put her papers -in-, and starts doing so.

Lian says, "Always. I hope you have got enough cold drinks."

Beowulf says, "Drinks are no problem." He smiles. "I doubt we'd want to
hold this in Rick's Place, but I can get plenty of goodies ordered in."

Kanna arches an eyebrow at Bey's nasty cackle, but given that she can't
hear the trump convo, just shrugs it off.

Beowulf reaches out a hand to Lian. "Everyone else out, or are we gonna
need to drop some folks off first?"

Lian says, "Perfect." She waves to someone outside the trump 'picture',
then takes Bey's hand. "Touga's a big boy. He can return to Amber on his
own. Okay, pull me through."

Kanna -smiles- as Lian gets pulled through.  "Well, -you- look like the
firecat who ate the firebird, Lian..."

Beowulf pulls Lian through to Kanna's room. "Do you want to brag, or
should I tell her," he asks Lian, grinning nastily.

Lian lets go of Bey's hand. "You can tell her." She smiles and walks
over to Kanna, hugging her. "It's good to see you again, big girl ... 
it's
been ages."

Beowulf grins. "Leng's biggest stronghold of Outsider cultists, the
Yellow Temple, is now the home of Leng's biggest Elder Sign. For that
matter, it might be the biggest Elder Sign anywhere."

Kanna hugs Lian back.  "It has?  It's just been a few months for me..."
She grins, and holds Lian for a bit.  "... but hey..." She blinks.

Kanna says, "...-well-."

Kanna GRINS.

Kanna asks, "I take it then your studies with the Elder Gods bore fruit,
Lian?"

Beowulf asks, "You completely slagged it over, then?"

Lian smiles at Kanna. "Years for me ... I spent a long time in Kadath, 
but
it was worth it."

Lian nods to Bey, "Exposure to the core of a star will do that."

Kanna says, "Slagged is good.  Elder sign is good.  Mom's gonna be
tickled to hear about -that-."  She blinks, and whistles.  "... that'd 
do
it, yes."

Kanna says, "Couldn't have happened to a group of 'nicer' people..."

Beowulf's eyes WIDEN. "My, my..." He winks at Lian. "Little girl is now
playing with some big, NASTY toys."

You page, "(Lian would notice that there's a slight bit of 'unsurity' in
Kanna's tone with those last few words...)" to Chris.

Kanna says, "Well, that's Lian for you... always the one with the
surgical big booms." She grins.

Kanna says, "As opposed to Brianna, who's just the Big Booms girl."

Lian shrugs, "Big temples require big fires. And I didn't even touch the
countryside."

Beowulf shakes his head, grinning, and gestures to the bag. "Shall we
continue our talk in fasttime? Got a few things to show you, though 
Lian's
already seen some of them."

Kanna nods, and lets go of Lian.  "LEt's do this, then."  She glances at
her manifestation badge.  "Sis, keep watch over the Bag, 'kay?  And let
mom know we'll be a little bit, relative-time."

Lian looks at Kanna again, then nods to Bey. "I'm ready ... as long as
there will be something cold to drink, I'll be happy."

Beowulf nods. "I'm sure we can get something nice and cool ordered in. 
And
I've got a nice, *private* building built for the Library." He opens the
bag's flap and gestures folks in.

Kanna hops in, wearing backpack, Beryllina, Knife, et-al.

Lian enters.

Beowulf hops in after them, closing the flap. He leads them out of the
hangar/entryway to a small nondescript building... nothing apparently
special about it, although a very skilled person might notice some 
rather
heavier guard systems than one might expect.

Kanna hrms, and nods at the building they approach.  "I noticed that
captial 'L' in the word 'Library', Bey... I take it your little
castle-side-trip bore more fruit than you thought it would?" She quirks 
a
smile.

Beowulf takes them inside and down a couple of flights of stairs; you're
pretty sure you're underground, now. The entryway and all rooms inside
appear to have nice warm wooden paneling and faux-gas lamps... rather
reminiscent of the Infinite Library, if they've been there.

Kanna whistles softly.  "Nice decor."

Beowulf says, "Well, yes. Welcome to Annadil's library... the safe parts
of it, anyway."

Kanna blinks.

Lian smiles slightly.

Beowulf says, "I always loved studying at the Infinite Library, so I
thought I'd set this place up like it."

Kanna says, "Yup, that'd count as 'borne fruit'."  She looks around more
attentitively now.  "Good thing you've got this place locked away, 
then...
people'd -kill- for this sort of info."

Beowulf says, "Over 10,000 books."

Kanna says, "Whoooo.  Quite our collector, our little
Outsider-Manipulated King of Chaos."

Kanna looks for a place to sit.

Lian says, "Some day I'll have to get a copy of the library."

Beowulf says, "I've let great-grandfather Anno make copies of some books
he didn't have, and I'm going to offer great-grandfather Fuyuutsuki the
same opportunity... other than them, I want to keep rather tight wraps 
on
this until things settle down."

The rooms all have nice, comfortable sofas, as well as several
well-organized study stations.

Kanna says, "Sensible plan.  Probably some that bear being reduced to
atomic particles, but..."

Beowulf smiles again, with a slight edge to it. "That's been taken care
of."

Kanna hrms, and arranges a study station next to one of the sofas,
dumping her pack and gear on the study-station shelf. "-Good-."

Lian just falls onto a sofa, finding a comfortable position that allows
her to see the other two.

Kanna opens her pack, and pulls out a thick stack of inventory reports 
and
drawings, and various of Kanna's notebooks.  She then plops down on the
couch she dragged over.  "So.  What -have- you two been up to?  I take 
it
we'll take turns twlling?"

Kanna grins.

Beowulf sits down on another sofa, half-flopping onto one of the
siderests as he lets himself relax completely.

Kanna says, "I maen, I can guess the gist, since you're all still alive
and all, but..."

Beowulf hmmms. "There's been a fair amount going on with me; Lian, you
want to go first, or want to wait and rest the vocal cords?" He grins.

Kanna asks, "Perhaps get snacks and drink down here, too?"

Kanna winks.

Lian nods, "I'll go first, as my story is the shortest, really."  She
grins, "And yes, getting snacks and drinks would be a good idea. 
Spending
time in that inferno made me thirsty, even though I didn't feel the 
heat."

Beowulf goes over to one of the blank walls, tugs on a handle, and pulls 
a
small drink/stove stand out of the wall. "Preferences on drinks, folks?
I'll make up some garlic bread with my special Italian red sauce."

Lian says, "Wet. Cold. No alcohol."

Kanna considers.  "Coke or sprite, myself."

Beowulf pulls out a Coke for Kanna, Mountain Dew for himself, and ice
water for Lian. *Very* icy water, as in an ice film floating on top. :)
"This cold enough for you?"

Kanna snrks, and accepts the Coke with a smile and thanks.

Lian rolls her eyes. "One day, someone is going to hit you with a very
large mallet for that kind of joke, Bey. Now, if you have another coke
though ... "

Kanna chuckles, and sips her coke, leaning back on her couch a bit.

Beowulf grins and pulls out another Coke for Lian, then pulls out a
small pot and some tomato sauce, then starts fiddling with the stove. 
"One
Coke, immediately; garlic bread of the gods, in a few minutes."

Kanna asks, "Hm.  Elder Sign Garlic Bread?  Would that work?"

Beowulf adds olive oil and seasonings to the pot as Lian talks.

Kanna says, "I wonder if that'd give you Elder Power Garlic Breath..."

Beowulf tsks. "Slandering the reputation of good garlic bread like that.
There goes your karma..." He grins.

Lian takes the coke. "Thanks." She leans back and finishes off the drink
before she starts speaking. "I don't have much to tell, really ... I 
spent
a few years in Kadath, studying with the various Elder Gods. I got home
and experimented a bit on our royal couple while the shipyards worked on
the refit of a Hunter class assault ship so I could go Borg hunting."

Beowulf raises an eyebrow. "Royal couple?"

Kanna raises an eyebrow, and smiles.  "So, what's the prognosis, Dr.
Lian?  When I last saw Aunt Yuriko, she seemed pretty darn happy...."

Lian smiles slightly. "It seems the problem's solved now."

Beowulf asks, "Problem? Mind expanding on that a bit?"

Beowulf adds the last bit of spices, then turns the heat down to let the
sauce simmer.

Kanna grins a bit.  "Yes, expansion would be nice, though I can guess 
the
end result is that Uncle Tylor and Aunt Yuriko don't have to worry about
inabilities to procreate, anymore?"

Lian says, "That's pretty much it, yes. At least, I hope so ... we'll 
know
when the first royal offspring is announced."

Beowulf BLINKS at that, then turns hopeful eyes to Lian. "You mean... 
they
can have children now?"

Lian blinks, "I think that's what I just said, yes."

Kanna says, "'offspring', 'procreate', that would seem to be the general
conversational trend, yes, bey," she replies dryly, but amused.

Beowulf sags. "Thank you, Lian." He suddenly reaches out and sweeps Lian
into a huge hug, lifting her off her feet and twirling her around a few
times. It's not the giddiness you usually see with moves like that,
though; it looks more like profound relief. "*Thank* you." He sets Lian
back down.

Kanna *blinks* at the relieved Bey.

Kanna says, "Well, -somebody's- happy, here..." She quirks a smile.

Beowulf smiles a bit, blushing. "Well. It's something I can't really
talk about... but that makes me happier than you could imagine."

Lian reaches for the sofa to steady herself. "You're welcome, Bey ... "
Shrugging slightly, she just lets herself fall back once she's made
certain that the sofa is indeed behind her. "Very happy," she agrees.

Kanna chuckles softly.  "Well.  Anyway.  Leaving that behind for the
moment... you were saying something about Borg Hunting?"

Beowulf sighs, smiling, then turns back to the fridge and pulls out some
loaves of french bread and some butter. He pops a chunk of butter into a
bowl, pours some garlic salt on it, then starts mixing. "Anyway... after
your latest little Dr. Frankenstein bit?"

You page, "[Kanna] . o O (Of course, with reactions like that, it's like
he's bloody -telegraphing-, buuuuuttt. *wl* )" to Chris.

Kanna sips more of her coke.  She hrms, and goes and pulls her
diary-sketchbook over, and scribbles a bit, an amused smile on her lips.

Lian hmphs. "Frankenstein. I should bap you for that." She takes a deep
breath before continuing. "Yes, Kanna ... I went Borg hunting. Not
surprisingly, I found a Borg cube, too. It was busy turning starships 
into
wrecks, so I decided to help out a bit. End result, I got information 
and
Borg before the ship went boom, and some more info where I could find 
more
from the people I helped."

Beowulf listens as he mixes, as he hasn't heard the details of this
before.

Kanna says, "Cool.  Hopefully this'll serve as a good lead for whatever
construct was powering the Black Runestaff."  She purses her lips. 
"DAmn,
we -have- gotten sidetracked from the constructs, haven't we." She 
sighs,
shrugs, and takes another drink.

Beowulf nods. "We have, haven't we? Well, as soon as we get done with 
the
Serpent's Horn, hopefully we can start turning them into ex-constructs
again."

Lian says, "I accidentally blew up the next cube, so I got Drake to
serve as tactical advisor. To make a long story short ... second Borg 
ship
we got in one piece, but disconnected from BorgNet. The third we got
before it could get disconnected. Now my people and the Borg under my
command are working on infiltrating said BorgNet to prepare my 
takeover."

Beowulf finishes mixing the butter and leaves it to stand, then starts
slicing french bread loaves into thin fingers.

Kanna says, "..."

Kanna says, "Hoo boy."

Kanna asks, "The Legion of LianBorg?"

Beowulf mock-shudders. "That's a frightening thought."

Lian says, "And that's when Bey invited me to see beautiful Leng, learn
more about its religion, and cause really big amounts of property 
damage."
She smiles, "Hey, better me than whoever is controlling them now, if
anyone is."

Beowulf OOCly misquotes, "I am Lian of Borg. You will be experimented
upon."

Kanna exclaims, "Ahhhh.  I meant it in jest, Bey."  She quirks a smile.
"Which means now it's -Beowulf's- turn for Storytime!"

Lian mock-glares at Bey. "For that, you can get me another coke."

Beowulf nods, and starts buttering the breadfingers. "Let's see... what
all had you heard about, last time I talked to you? Did your mother tell
you about my unexpected trip to Hel's Tir'na'nog?"

Beowulf pulls another coke out of the refrigerator and tosses it to
Lian.

Kanna nods.  "Yes, she had.  You brought it up with me before we parted
ways down in Amber, and we chatted a bit, but I admit it's been a while
for me, but I remember the gist of concerns.  I'll fill in what happened
with -me- after you take care of your stuff."

Kanna quirks a smile, and then sobers.  "And yes, I had not the best of
nights that night... well, it wasn't a fully hoopyfroody day ANYWAY,
but..." She shrugs.  "Please, go on."

Beowulf says, "Right. Let's see... after the Tir'na'nog jaunt, I
compared notes with Motoko, then went to check on Bessie and see how
she's doing."

Kanna nods.

Lian sips her coke and listens.

Beowulf says, "One interesting bit I got when talking to her... both she
and Juri were rescued from the Rebma Vortex by the Phoenix. One of them,
anyway."

====
====

You page, "Hm, do I remember that from experiencing Juri's Last Moments
from Yig (as my answer for having hung)? (if so, I obviously need to 
edit
the last part of Branches of Wisdom... :)" to Akemi.

You page, "(I already know I need to add the cow somehow...)" to Akemi.

Akemi pages, "Juri got saved by the Phoenix, yes." to you.

====
====

Beowulf says, "Apparently, the Phoenix was one of the Animal-Gods,
equivalent in pre-Logrus times to the Serpent and the Unicorn, according
to Annadil's Library... but it faired rather worse in the War of the 
Gods
than they did, and as far as I can deduce, it was offered shelter here 
by
one of the two."

Kanna nods, quiet.  She rubs her throat, absently, before drinkign from
her coke, emptying it.  "Yes."  She then shakes her head.  "I mean about
the rescue thing.  I didn't know -that-, though..."

Beowulf says, "And now has some very strong ties to Cathuria... but I'm
probably getting ahead of myself."

Kanna sighs.  "Damn.  The outsiders did more of a number than I
originally had thought."

Kanna considers her coke.

Kanna says, "Coke.  Need Coke."

Beowulf finishes buttering the last breadfinger, puts the lot in the
oven to bake, then pulls out another coke for Kanna.

Kanna accepts the drink, and drinks from it.

====
====

You page, "(and yes, the rubbing of Kanna's throat was timed with the
mention of Juri being rescued by the phoenix...)" to Chris.

You page, "(mutters about having to edit the last part of Branches of
Wisdom to add the cow and the Phoenix part... *wl*)" to Chris.

In a page-pose to you, Chris grins.

====
====

Beowulf asks, "Let's see... after talking to Bessie, I got pulled into
that investigation at Panopticon. You probably got most of that at the
other end from Jacqui, right?"

Kanna nods.  "I'll give you our end once we get to my part." She looks
rueful.

As the garlic bread bakes, the smell of really GOOD Italian red sauce
starts seeping into the room.

Kanna whimpers at the scent of red sauce.

Beowulf says, "I haven't heard back from our hired Panopticon P.I. yet,
but it looks like the whole thing was mainly an attempt to tie one or 
more
of us up in red tape trying to investigate the thing."

Not to be confused with the smell of EVIL, SATAN WORSHIPPING Italian red
sauce, of course.

Kanna says, "It very likely was.  Really, by now, it's a nonissue
anyway, but..."

Kanna shrugs.

Lian says, "Red tape is for cutting."

Beowulf says, "OOC Hush, John, if that was you. You'll get some when you
guys come down this weekend. ^_^"

Kanna says, "Bring your chainsaw.  Or a pack of Lawyers."

Lian winces. "Lawyers? That's -cruel-, Kanna."

Beowulf says, "Anyway, other than wasting our time and a bit of Lian's,
nothing much got accomplished. Touga did join us, though, which proved 
to
be very helpful at our next stop."

Kanna says, "Okay, okay, that's probably violating some cruelty law out 
in
Shadow, sorry Lian..." She then nods to Bey, every so often glancing at
the oven longingly.

Lian eyes Kanna, apparently amused by something.

Beowulf checks the oven, sees the breadfingers haven't *quite* browned
yet, then puts them back in for another minute. "As our next stop 
happened
to be Annadil's Stronghold, though it took us a bit to figure that out."

Kanna says, "As sis got a relayed report from Aeris, yes.  And
apparently you made out like bandits."  She gestures at the walls of
books.

Beowulf nods. "Trumped into a fairly desolate land with a rather large
castle standing by itself, out in the open. With a nice Yellow Sign on 
the
gates. Fortunately, Touga was able to obliterate it."

Kanna says, "Boooo Yellow Sign.  Yaaaaaay Uncle Touga."

Lian smiles. "That's my boy."

Beowulf finally pulls the breadfingers out of the oven, takes the sauce
off the stove, pours some of it into small bowls, and hands bowls and
plates to Kanna and Lian, inviting them to grab a few breadfingers and 
dig
in.

Beowulf says, "The courtyard inside was fairly deserted, though we did
have to take out an undead dragon that had some of Annadil's
finger-rings."

Kanna accepts the breadfingers and sauce, dips, eats, and Mmmmmmmmmmms
with an expression of bliss.

Lian accepts the food and leans back again, eating slowly while she
observes.

Beowulf says, "Nasty little things -- sent a mindbolt with Annadil's
mental strength at anyone who attacked the bearer with magic. Later on, 
we
had some of the family check 'em out, and found out they're safe to 
use."

Kanna says, "Cute little toys.  From what I hear, he was a nasty mental
customer."

Beowulf says, "Naru now has one... haven't decided where the other three
should go, yet. But it may have saved Naru at the Yellow Temple."

Beowulf nods. "About the strength of Uncle Mikage, or so Touga
estimated."

Kanna whistles.

Kanna says, "That's pretty fucking strong, yes."

Beowulf says, "Right. Uncle Touga did a very good job unravelling his
wards... well, that and they'd had 40 years to decay. So we went to look
at the inner Keep... which had five doors, much like the Keep of Five
Worlds."

Kanna mmms.  "Numerologists must have a field day with these things, I'm
sure."

Beowulf says, "And each door had the sigil of an Outer God on it." He
looks slighly boggled for a moment. "Fortunately, Touga and Lily were 
able
to take care of the one on our favorite ex-Herald, and we got in."

Kanna says, "Gnarly Nharly, wheeee."

Beowulf says, "Inside his door was a large temple. Nasty symbols, and 
had
the low-level feel of EVIL that everything inside that place had, but no
immediate dangers. The one thing of major note was the door labeled "

Kanna asks, "Lemme guess --- 'Library'?"

Beowulf says, "labeled 'The Void,' with a large statue next to it."

Beowulf OOCly arghs. :p

Kanna says, "...oh."

Lian frowns at that description.

Kanna asks, "Ehhhhboy.  Please tell me nobody tried opening it?"

Beowulf says, "At least when I'm ready to go after the Master Spikard,
there's now a convenient gateway."

Beowulf waves his hands frantically. "Hey, give us more credit than
*that*! Of course we didn't open it!"

Kanna says, "-Good-."

Kanna looks apologetic.  "Just color me paranoid, Bey."

Kanna mutters something about Annadil's taste in architectual add-ons.

Beowulf says, "Apparently it was of major use to him... but getting
ahead of myself again."

Kanna nods.

Beowulf says, "Next, we found the Library. And spent 2-3 days moving it 
in
here, so we could research it in fasttime."

Kanna says, "Of course it'd be -useful-... but one wonders why the hell
he'd go to the trouble to opejn the Gate of Revolution too, if he had a
way Out in his closet, effectively..." sh eshakes her head, and then 
nods.

Beowulf says, "I suspect the doorway there had limitations on it;
haven't figured the whole thing out, to be sure."

Lian says, "Way Out doesn't necessarily mean Way In."

Kanna says, "... point."

Kanna eats more breadfingers with sauce.  "So, you then got enough
reading material for the next ten lifetimes.... any goodies of note?"

Beowulf goes, digs out some of Annadil's notebooks, and flips through
them. "Ah. He says here that any sentient thing could go *out*.. but 
only
things native to our universe could come *in*, unless certain rites were
performed."

Kanna says, "Huh.  Cute.  Useful.  Dangerous, but useful."

Beowulf says, "Quite a bit, actually." He begins digging for his notes.

Beowulf OOCly also begins trying to track down where this bit of info
went, when he copied stuff to his desktop HD en masse. :p

Kanna says, "I am imagining an Elder Sign Bomb the size of Topeka
dropped through that thing, and us running like heck back for the door.
Pause a moment to ponder this Yummy Thought.  Mmmm."

Lian hms. "I don't know if that would work ... Outside, They reign."

Kanna sighs.  "Was just a thought."

Lian sighs. "Sorry."

Beowulf nods. "Yah. Picked up a fair amount of info about conditions Out
There, which are decidedly Not Nice. Good thing is that it's not filled
cheek-by-jowl with Outsiders... there's large amounts of more-or-less
empty space out there as well."

Kanna smiles a bit at Lian, reassuringly.  Then nods at Bey.  "Right.
Well, it's not like I was planning to to do a vacation trip through the
place, -anyway-...."

Beowulf nods.

Kanna says, "But it's a tad reassuring, should Knife ever have to be
used for its cross-dimensional purpose." She snaps her fingers, oh-ing,
and pulls out a couple sheets of paper from her stack, handing to Bey 
and
Lian.  "Got more info from Great-grandpa Fuyutsuki on its use in that
regard."

Beowulf says, "Oh, one interesting thing at that point; we were starting
to think about sleeping, asked Aeris if there'd be any problems trumping
in or out of there... adn she noted that there was a huge
Outsider-flavored trump font in the basement."

Beowulf blinks, and looks at the sheet.

Kanna pauses.

Lian takes the paper and scans the info quickly before tucking it away.

Kanna says, "Yeaaaah, trumping with that in the area would have been
bad."

Beowulf nods to Lian, and puts it away for later study.

Beowulf says, "Well, it later turned out to be all right... but at that
point, we just slept in watches in the bag, and started moving 
everything
in the Library in here."

The sheet basically describes that the sharp edge opens gates, the dull
edge seals them, the effectiveness of the opening/sealing depends on the
Primal Power backing it, as it was primarily designed to open/close
Outsider-spawned gates.  Unknown effectiveness against Trump Gates, etc;
also notes about general use, the need to visualize destinations, and
effectiveness again depends on universe 'closeness' and 'Congruency'.

Beowulf hhmmmms. "Interesting. Might be important later, when dealing 
with
Hel's universe."

Kanna nods.  "That's what I was thinking, but as of yet, only you and
Motoko have -seen- it, per-se, and there's still the dangers of transit 
in
the process."

Beowulf nods back. "Anyway. Oh, one other thing -- everything in the
Library had only been used for 30 years... meaning someone had been
there after Annadil was sealed away."

There's also notes about the will of the user weilding the Knife
controlling effectiveness, and wether the gate itself is being
sustained... and its damage potential, up to being able to nearly
penetrate Battleship plate.

Kanna blinks.  "The Priestesses?  Or Taylor?"

Lian asks, "Did you timescry to see who it was?"

Beowulf says, "The priestesses. Lily did a temporal scry on the gate, 
and
they came there 30 years ago."

Lian nods.

Beowulf says, "Taylor apparently never found this place. Which is
undoubtedly a Very Good Thing."

Lian says, "Considering what he could have done with the information and
materials there ... Yes."

Beowulf says, "Oh... and as far as I could tell, it was indeed the
Kodachi who is now Lady Alars... though Motoko says that she has
reformed."

Kanna phews.  "Thank the Pyricorn.  Must still be trying to reclaim
'glories' lost."

Kanna nods.  "I'm inclined to believe Motoko.  Her judge of character is
sound."

Beowulf says, "I do want to talk to her about it when we head down to
Chaos, though; the priestesses carried a fair amount of stuff out when
they left."

Kanna says, "If she even knows.  But your call, she might not want to be
reminded of those days."  She taps fingers against lips for a bit, 
before
drinking more coke.

Beowulf says, "There was also some things in Annadil's notes about how 
he
recruited the priestesses, and corrupted them; nothing to indicate 
whether
that Rei was the Rei from the original Ember, unfortunately. Annadil 
just
found her wandering in Shadow."

Beowulf says, "She might not want to be reminded, and I don't really
want to cause her pain if she's reformed... but given what else we found
there, it's probably important to find out what they took."

Kanna sighs.  "There'd be no real way to tell, regarding Rei of Ember,
unless we could catch her and brainprobe her."  She purses her lips. 
"I'd
suggest asking Motoko as a go-between for any Chaos-stuff... her and
Moriya."

Lian says, "They'd be perfect, yes."

Kanna says, "Could have been a Shadow of Rei, could have been she walked 
a
Broken Pattern... after all, the Fire Pattern casts shadows -now-, and
back then it would've been the same..."

Kanna says, "But I'm digressing.  Please, go on, bey."  She quirks a
smile.

Beowulf says, "Well, I actually do have a 'raincheck', more or less, to 
go
back and visit her; when we returned that artwork to Alars, she invited 
us
to tea, and we had to beg off but promised to come back later."

Kanna nods.

Beowulf says, "Anyway. Let's see... "

=====
=====

Beowulf OOCly seaches notes again.

Beowulf asks, "OOC Since you didn't give specifics on that part, John, 
can
we assume that Bey just shared the info with the others?"

John says, "OOC Yes."

=====
=====

Beowulf hmms. "Picked up some useful information on how to spot Outsider
influence. A lot of it depends on being able to interact with someone in
person, though."

Kanna says, "Right.  Which is sometimes difficult, but hey."

Beowulf says, "Another nice bit -- Outsiders aren't some unanimous
force. Each cult tends to focus on one Outsider, and they tend to feud
with each other instead of cooperating."

Beowulf says, "So that could be a useful lever in the future, if we have
the leisure time to pit one group of cultists against another one and 
then
go in to clean up the remains."

Kanna says, "Huh.  Cute.  Not that that helps -us- much in the trenches,
save for trying to ... yes, that, exactly."

Kanna says, "We need Outsider-Off."

Kanna says, "Spray for the damn things."

Lian says, "Hmm ... I'll see what I can do."

Beowulf smiles ruefully. "Didn't see anything that would let us make
something like that, unfortunately."

Kanna says, "Thanks." She quirks a smile.

Beowulf says, "Though Lady Elder Sign, here..." He grins.

Lian just smiles.

Kanna says, "I'll get pom-poms with little Elder-Signs on them, wave 'em
about..." She giggles a bit.  "Sorry, a tad punchy."

Beowulf says, "There were also some useful bits on when a shadow has
fallen under Outsider influence: it tends to become more mechanistic (as
in a lack of magic), its people more animalistic, and spatial distortion
can show up as well."

Beowulf says, "Like Castrovalva." He blinks a bit at the thought of his
experiences there.

Beowulf OOCly thwaps Merc. :p

Kanna huhs at that, and nods, thoughtful.  "Well, Jade certainly doesn't
have that, thank the Pyricorn.  Nor most the places I usually frequent."

Beowulf grins at the thought of the pom-poms.

Beowulf says, "Some other places I can think of: Sargasso, Doom,
Kumbayah, Marketplace, Sargasso, and the Union of the Snake."

Kanna frowns at that.  "Well, I've been to Doom a few times... but
Marketplace got vaped a long time ago, though Uncle Drake suspects that
because of the damn squid, it provided an 'in' for the Outsiders, which
he's currently investigating."

Beowulf says, "Marketplace... would certainly explain some of the
problems Uncle Drake's having." He frowns a bit.

Lian nods, "Indeed ... "

Beowulf says, "That's the major stuff I can think of right now with the
Outsiders." He leans forward and looks into Kanna's eyes. "And now on to
the things I found out about Hel..."

Kanna says, "That's his suspicion, too.  I've got some names to
investigate regarding Sumire's ninja problem that might be tied to it...
after all this gets cleared out of the way, I'll probably knuckle down 
and
try to infiltrate the outlying shadows, if it's doing the same sort of
thing the Gaunt Man's shadow, Tharkold, and other places like that...."
She pauses, and looks back.  "Yes?"

Kanna asks, "Annadil had information on -Hel-, too?"

Beowulf asks, "Which involves at least one prophecy that seems to relate
to you." He keeps looking at her. "Have you seen anything from the Red
Book of Malin, yet?"

Kanna blinks.  "I've -heard- of the Red Book of Malin.  Back during
Marches.  But never -read- anything from it, and hell, that was ages ago
for me."

Beowulf nods. "Yes, he did. The Red Book... he also had 'Peterson's
Guide to Worlds Beyond the Cave of Worlds', which has an entry on the 
Land
of the Dead."

Kanna says, "..."

Kanna says, "... Peterson's Guide... -to the Worlds BEYOND the Cave of
Worlds-?"

Kanna stares at Beowulf.

Beowulf goes to the shelves, pulls out the volume, and hands it to her
with a grin.

The book says the Land of the Dead is ruled by Hel, a Sanjiyan from the
Abyss.  The Unicorn and the Serpent both bow to her, and she controls 
all
the Patternblades, Spikards, and Logrusfoils, the DemiJewels, the Keep 
of
the Five Worlds, and just about everything else worth having, so it 
rates
the Universe as 'VERYDANGEROUS to visit'

Kanna takes it, and flips through it, seeing if she can even -read- it.
Hopefully it's not written in Sidar or some other language.  She flips 
to
Avalon first, to see if it's there, and then to the Land of the Dead.

====
====

Chris pages, "(Looks like No Talk today ... )" to you.

You page, "Eh, we could.  I'm good for staying up late. ^_^" to Chris.

Chris pages, "How come? :)" to you.

You page, "Not feeling very tired, and Kanna won't let me, I think.
*wl*" to Chris.

====
====

Kanna says, "... good effing Pyricorn.  How could such a place have
gotten so overwhelmed?  I mean, sure, she's got their Jewel of Judgement
in her third eye... okay, perhaps that could do it."

Beowulf blinks. "Didn't I tell you the details of what I saw in
Tir'na'nog?"

Beowulf says, "Apparently Sakura sacrificed Nanami to Hel at the edge of
the Abyss."

Kanna says, "Guh.  Mom... will -definitely- want to see this book, Bey."
 She nods at Beowulf.  "yes, both you and mom.  IT's just been a while 
for
me, remember?  I spent several months in Akasha."  She looks rueful... 
and
then shudders.  "Ah, yes... -that-."

Lian remains silent, apparently lost in her own thoughts.

Beowulf says, "Yup... that." He looks fairly sick himself.

Kanna mmms.  "So.  Did the High and Migty Lion of Chaos have any ideas 
of
how to -stop- her, or did he just hope that he'd never have to deal with
the place, or that his Outsider Allies would cover his butt?"

Beowulf says, "He didn't have anything specific on her himself, no; this
is just out of the books we researched in his library."

Beowulf says, "There was also a prophecy out of the Red Book that
related to her, though."

Kanna nods.  "Just on her type of Abyss demon?"  She scratches her
cheek.  "... perhaps we should talk to Morrigan about Sanjiyans...."

Kanna then looks up at Bey.  "The Red Book again.  Go on..."

Beowulf nods. "Right... well, more on that in a bit."

Beowulf says, "The prophecy:"

Beowulf says, "Phoenix Flies on Wings of Dream"

Beowulf says, "Wolf Delves through Caverns Deep"

Beowulf says, "Hanged Man Climbs the World Tree's Branches." He looks at
Kanna as he says this.

Beowulf says, "Elemental Songs Open a Door"

Beowulf says, "Ferryman Demands a toll"

Beowulf says, "Double-edged Blade Slices Open and Seals Shut." He looks 
at
Kanna again.

Beowulf says, "Death Calls to Death"

Beowulf says, "And Life to Life"

Kanna arches an eyebrow at those stanzas as he glances at her.  "I
wonder..."

Beowulf says, "Five Claws reach out to Rend the World"

Beowulf says, "Five Armies march to do Her Will"

Beowulf says, "Five Wheels spin at her command"

Beowulf says, "Five Icons command the elements"

Beowulf says, "Five Children slay her foes"

Beowulf says, "Beware the opening"

Beowulf says, "Of the Elder Elemental Eye'"

Beowulf says, "In the Shrine of Fallen Elements"

Beowulf says, "For when it gazes upon the world"

Beowulf says, "The way will will be opened"

Kanna frowns a bit, her expression getting more grave as he goes through
the fives and what comes after.  "Damnit."

Beowulf says, "Some worrysome bits, there."

Lian hrms. "That's one big worrysome bit, Bey."

Beowulf says, "Looks like the Harad sisters of that universe have five
Patternblades, five Spikards..." He sighs. "If we end up having to fight
them, it's going to be UGLY."

Kanna says, "A massive worrysome bit.  Double Edged Blade is definitely
the Knife, though.  Hanged Man... I've heard some odd stories from mom
about how Naussica got born, and what came before, relating to Uncle
Mikage... but Hanged Man on the World Tree's Branches is -definitely-
Yig."

Kanna nods.  "Mom had that same worry, yes.  These prophesies and the
Peterson's guide just confirms it.   Damnit."

Beowulf says, "What I've been able to figure out so far... the first
bits probably refer to ways of going between universes."

Kanna folds her hands in front of her face, resting elbows on knees,
pensive.  "If only there -was- a way to get them freed from being
controlled by Hel... but we may not have the damn TIME."  She nods. 
"That's a start of my feeling, yes.  If Caverns Deep is the Cave of
Worlds, we also have Cathuria and Yig and Knife.  Dunno the rest."

Beowulf says, "I think I've found a couple of possible ways to free
them... more in a bit."

Beowulf says, "Caverns is probably the Cave of Worlds, Juri's Phoenix
Fleet guards the borders... 'Elemental Songs' could refer to the Keep of
Five Elements boosting trump calls between worlds..."

Beowulf says, "The Ferryman -- might mean the Abyss Pirates, or else the
legendary Charon."

Kanna hrms.  "save that we'd still have to be careful of Outsider taint.
 Now, an -untainted- Trump Fount..." Signifigant glance to the WAER
badge, and then a pause.  "... Huh.  If the Abyss Pirates do indeed have
THAT degree of capability..."

Kanna says, "I wonder if mom still has the Dread Pirate Demetrius's
business card..."

Kanna scratches her cheek, thoughtful.

Lian says, "The Abyss is said to touch all worlds ..."

Kanna says, "Heh, well, we could certainly pay him off pretty
handsomely."

Kanna says, "Give him an adamantium hull for his sub, or something."

Beowulf hms. "Good question."

Beowulf says, "Who knows, maybe Annadil's Abyss Sub plans have some bits
that he doesn't have and could use."

Lian says, "Think about payment when you actually -have- an Abyss
pirate."

Beowulf says, "'Death Calls to Death'... that may mean places related to
Death may be good spots for Hel to invade." He hmmms. "I need to
double-check that against the list of landscapes I saw HelCorrine
painting."

Kanna says, "Well, yeah."  She quirks a smile.  "Which I don't have. But
you may want to bring this up with mom, Bey, I think Demetrius's card 
had
information on how to contact him, though he was based out of Avalon's
universe."

Beowulf says, "Actually, I do have Annadil's Abyss Sub plans. They were 
in
his workshop." He grins.

Kanna raises eyebrows.  "Build our own?  Cute."

Beowulf says, "Well, we'd need an Abyss Master to build the Abyss
Engine. But other than that, yes, we could build one."

Kanna says, "So, we've got options, at least.  That's better than what 
we
-were- doing earlier."

Kanna looks wry.

Beowulf says, "The workshop also had plans on an undersea Battleship
that Annadil apparently built... but more on that when I get to the
workshop."

Kanna raises her eyebrows again at -that-, and hrms.

Kanna flips pages a bit in her sketchbook, makes a note, closes it
again.

Beowulf just shakes his head. "There was a whole lotta stuff we found."

Beowulf says, "Elder Elemental Eye... well, there's at least four or
five places I can think of in Shadow that match that name. And one of 
them
also relates to a bit of the Black Heart prophecy, the bit about 'Empire
ruled by a Hammer.'"

Beowulf says, "I want to check up on that as soon as I can. If we can
somehow keep it from opening..."

Kanna says, "Well, I can imagine."  She quirks a smile.  "Anything else 
of
note?"

Beowulf whews. "Lots and lots of stuff..."

Kanna says, "Empire Ruled by a Hammer... well, yes, there's that bit
relating to Halthos, the Ring of Changes... which I suspect is tied to 
the
City of Brass or something close ot it, and mom -did- have those reports
of multiple Gangs of Four spotted in the city... -another- thing to 
check
up on."  She looks rueful.

Beowulf says, "Let's see, ways to free the Harad sisters enslaved by
Hel..."

Kanna nods, looking interested.

Beowulf says, "Normally, Sanjiyans' captives can be freed by forcing the
Sanjiyan to release their souls, or by capturing them and using powerful
magic to extract them. Obviously, that's not going to be too helpful 
with
Hel."

Beowulf says, "Unfortunately, since Hel apparently has the JoJ as her
third eye... well, we could try capturing her and prying it out of her
forehead, but since a big reason I want to free that world's Harad 
sisters
is so we don't have to go through them to get to Hel..."

Kanna says, "Cute.  Well, it's not like these things are meant to be
'easy'..." She sighs, slightly.

Beowulf says, "It does mean whoever has to face her will probably want 
the
JoJ handy."

Beowulf says, "However, some people who have studied the Abyss are
supposed to be able to control Abyss creatures, like Hel, and they might
be able to extract the souls."

Kanna says, "And Merehallow.  According to Morgan and Cousin Hiko, Aunt
Juri wanted it to be able to slay Hel..." She then nods.

Beowulf says, "We're probably talking about Abyss Monks, rather than
Abyss Pirates; the Pirates tend to have more practical knowledge in
mind."

Lian says, "Your average Abyss creature usually can't draw on the power 
of
a whole Reality though, Bey."

Kanna says, "Again, you might want to talk to Morrigan about that,
Beowulf.  I'm pretty sure she'll be around up here in Ember for the next
day or so."

Beowulf nods. "That's a good idea."

Beowulf says, "It may not pan out to anything... but I at least would 
like
to look into the possibility."

Lian nods. "It won't hurt, at least ... "

Kanna says, "After all, she -is- an Abyss demon, I think."  She quirks a
smile.  "Who was contracted to watch over Lucien, and happens to be in
love with him, but hey."

Beowulf grins. "I'm not going to touch that part of it."

Kanna shrugs, smiling.  "Works for me.  All observational evidence on my
part, anyway."

Kanna says, "Any other suggestions on De-slaving the sisters?  In the 
end
analysis, it may just not be practical, given everything ELSE we need to
do..."

Beowulf says, "That's the main one -- talk with someone with a lot of
Abyss skills, as they might be able to do it."

Beowulf says, "The main practical point I was thinking of is trying to
avoid fighting them... as they're going to be very nasty opponents."

Kanna sighs, and nods.  "Joy.  Rapture.  Whee.  You can just -tell- I'm
thrilled by this, brother Beowulf."

Kanna asks, "So, -after- the great Library Raid of 1332, you and the
gang went off to Leng and smacked down the yahoos there?"

Beowulf smiles crookedly, cocking an eyebrow. "You said it, sis."

Beowulf says, "Not quite. We explored the rest of Annadil's keep,
avoided triggering a fairly nasty trap in the garden, and found
Annadil's workshop. Which I showed Lian through before we headed off to
Leng."

Beowulf grins at Lian.

Beowulf asks, "Just how badly were you drooling, sis?"

Lian says, "Drooling, me? I -never- drool, Bey. Really. "

Lian says, "Though I have to admit that Annadil, nutcase that he was, 
had
a nice workshop."

Kanna says, "Ignore the automated mop and pail that Gina built to follow
her along."

Beowulf smiles knowingly. "Riiight."

Lian looks around for objects to throw.

Beowulf says, "Gina? Oh, right, one of your friends from Jade. One of
these days, I need to meet them."

Lian hehs and leans back again. "You have no idea what awaits you ... "

Beowulf blinks. "Um... right."

Beowulf says, "Let's see... the workshop had a notebook with a listing 
of
his construction projects, including the Abyss Sub Mamiya used at the
Second Day of Darkness. And a very nasty undersea battleship, with both
conventional and Outsider-based weapons... something that apparently was
never used, and has not shown up yet."

Kanna chuckles.  "Oh, you two'll get along like a house afire.  Pity you
and Lily are an item..." She grins.  "But forgive me my matchmaking
tendencies..."

Kanna sobers at the mention of the undersea battleship.

Kanna opens her sketchbook again, makes ANOTHER note, and closes it.

Beowulf says, "Lily's got me pretty firmly locked up, yes." He grins
fondly.

Lian smiles briefly.

Beowulf says, "I want to try to find it, hopefully before Lucien makes 
his
assault on Rebma; it could be very helpful for that, if we destroy the
Outsider-based weapons." He shudders a bit. "Or very nasty if the
Rebmaquois gets it."

Kanna hehs softly.  "Got any loctions on the battleship?  Plans or other
things?"

Kanna smiles slowly.

Kanna says, "Trust me, Bey, you'll be able to find it."

Kanna asks, "But I'll get into that later.  Now, Leng?"

Beowulf says, "I've got the plans. All the notebook said was that lots 
of
big pieces were built in the workshop, then moved to a secret undersea
base and assembled there."

Kanna ahs, and nods.

Beowulf says, "Don't you want to know about the Trump Font that almost
sent all of us plus Miki to someplace nasty?"

Kanna says, "Oh, right, that -- obviously you and Uncle Miki aren't."

Kanna says, "Why are these things turning up, and Outsider Tainted?  The
Keep, Annadil's place... at least Aeris isn't, bless her cute little
heart."

Beowulf says, "Basically, after avoiding a lot of nasty trump traps, we
found Annadil's font -- which apparently could also do the Living Trump
treatment. Very nasty Outsider-tainted thing."

Kanna asks, "Sealed by now, I hope?"

Beowulf nods, and pats the WAER badge. "Yup, Aeris got off lucky. Though
her font does share an element with Annadil's font..."

Beowulf nods. "Just barely in time, yes, it was sealed."

Lian arches an eyebrow. "What does she share with Annadil's font?"

Kanna arches a matching eyebrow.

Beowulf says, "The thing is, it didn't 'just turn up'. Neither did
Aeris's font. Both of them were artificially created."

Kanna blinks.

Lian blinks.

Kanna says, "Somebody... -MADE-... a Trump Font."

Kanna says, "Or more to the point, made -several-.  A repeatable
process."

Beowulf says, "Annadil apparently created this font in the basement, by
bringing in flows of trump energy from across shadow -- like one would 
tie
in magical energy to make a spikard."

Beowulf says, "Two somebodies made two fonts."

Lian murmurs, "Fascinating ... "

Kanna says, "Ah, okay.  Still the statement stands."

Kanna says, "Damn, mom will DEFINITELY want to study Aeris after this in
more detail..."

Lian says, "Not only auntie Corrine, Kanna ... me too."

Kanna says, "Well, yeah." She grins.

Beowulf says, "Some other person made Aeris's font... someone with a
sense of humor, apparently, given its nature." He grins. "And someone
apparently benevolent."

Kanna says, "Yay!"  She smiles.  "Aeris is great."

Beowulf says, "I'm starting to wonder if it might be the same person who
made those two mystery trumps that turned up in my deck... one leading 
to
Bessie, the other to the stronghold."

Beowulf says, "I'd originally thought it was Anno, since they matched 
the
style of the Gainax trump that got us out of Ebenscrux alive, and since
they appeared in my deck at Gainax... but great-grandfather said it 
wasn't
him, and he wasn't sure who it was."

Lian says, "Maybe examination of how Aeris' font was created will reveal 
a
'signature' of some kind that can lead you to whoever did it."

Beowulf nods. "I didn't really notice the signs that it was artificially
created until I had Annadil's font for comparison... after all, you can
find infinite odd things occurring naturally in Shadow."

Kanna says, "Beats me.  If the signatures are the same, perhaps..." She
shrugs.  "But mom or sis would know more about that, and I don't know
about how a Trump Font would have in a way of 'signatures' giving its
sources from across shadow."

Kanna shrugs.

Beowulf says, "I talked to your mother about the mystery trumps... she
agreed they were by the same person, but she wasn't familiar with them
either."

Kanna nods.  "Well, they're leads at least.  Prolly somebody from the
Courts, or elsewhere."

Beowulf nods. "One more thing to look into... ah, well."

Kanna says, "So much to do, so little time to do it.  Ain't that the
way."

Kanna grins.

Lian says, "Unfortunately ..."

Beowulf says, "Anyway, we sealed off the font, just barely, Anno molded
the shadow to keep anyone but us from getting in, and the Amber elders 
put
up their own wards with the same restrictions."

Kanna asks, "Hm?"

=====
=====

Beowulf asks, "Unfortunately?"

Lian . o O ( OOC: That was in reply to Kanna, not Bey. Travis was too
fast. ^.^; )

Beowulf says, "OOC Ah, OK. :)"

Kanna OOCly says, "Ahhh.  I'll get it in edits. ^_^"

====
====

Kanna asks, "Okay, -now- on to Leng?  Is it a glassy crater now?"

Beowulf says, "After that, I tried to let the Amber admirals know about
the battleship; informed Kozue without any problems, tried to trump
Saionji and got... an avatar of the Serpent."

Kanna says, "Uh."

Beowulf says, "Who was very angry." He blinks. "Which led me to
investigate, and I found out that Michelle had also been taken by the
Serpent's Horn, and that Thoric had just barely escaped; we picked him 
up
as he was hellriding back to Amber, since they got his trumps."

Kanna facepalms.  "Daffyl?"

Beowulf says, "Yup. Daffyl."

Kanna pales.  "Damn, Uncle Saionji AND cousin Michelle?  That's -had- to
have hit hard for Thoric.  Shit."

Lian nods, "It did. Poor boy ... "

====
====

The_Prof pages, "*Now* do you see why I've been so hot for a catch-up
session? o.o I didn't even go into a third of the research I did in the
library. o.o" to you and Chris.

====
====

Beowulf nods. "I want to sit down and try and cheer him up myself,
before we leave. Well, cheer him up as much as we can, given the
circumstances."

Kanna looks like she's about to mutter something about Morgan Being An
Idiot, but shelves it.  "We need to resolve this.  We need to put things
RIGHT between us and Daffyl.  Dammit, this sort of thing when we've got
Outsiders and Sanjiyans' breathing down our necks..."

Kanna sighs. ".. a riddle game. dammit, thats all it could've took," she
mutters under her breath.

Beowulf says, "And Davros -- the Stylite, not the nut in the pepper
shaker -- was captured by them as well. Motoko trumped me as we were on
the way to the Yellow Temple in Leng."

Kanna says, "..."

Kanna says, "DAMMIT.,"

Kanna's hands tighten into fists.  "DAvros wasn't even INVOLVED!  Even
-TANGENTALLY-!"

Kanna looks like she'd want to hit a table if there was a convenient
coffee table to hit.

Beowulf says, "Exactly. That's why we went to Leng. Motoko and
great-grandfather Anno both said that recovering Daffyl's stolen Eye was
the best way to make things right with him."

Beowulf quickly conjures a convenient punching bag for Kanna.

Kanna nods.  "I heard that from Moriya... I trumped him after I came
back from Akasha, but apparently the situation hadn't gotten that severe
yet.  Just that they'd hit Alars.  Hm, they might've decided to hit our
Davros then if he was involved -- ah, thank you, Beowulf."

Beowulf says, "I think they got Davros when they attacked going after
Mutsumi... Motoko thought it might have been for his spikard."

Lian says, "This is going to be -so much- fun."

Beowulf says, "Or at least that they took his spikard."

Kanna takes several test punches on the punching bag, and then SLAMS a
fist into its side, shearing it in half under the stress, leaving the 
sand
to spill out.

Kanna says, "Damnit.  Damnit -DAMNIT-." She pauses, and turns back to 
look
at the two.  "Wait.  Spikard?"

Lian nods. "Davros holds ... or rather held, at this point, a spikard."

Beowulf says, "Yes... Davros came out of the Ebenscrux mess with a
Spikard, one of the Dragon ones."

Kanna asks, "Which one?"

Kanna takes some deep breaths, and returns to her seat.

Beowulf winces and quickly conjures Kanna a stronger punching bag,
sweeping up the sand from the first one.

Kanna shakes her head, and waves a hand.  "Nevermind, bey, it's passed."
 She pauses. "Keep it around in case I get Pissed Off again, though."

Beowulf says, "I can't remember, off the top of my head..." He furrows 
his
brow in thought.

Lian says, "I have no idea which one it is ... I only saw him use it
once."

=====
=====

The_Prof pages, "Oh, one more thing in the Red Book that Bey didn't
notice until it was all over:
<http://www.thekeep.org/cgi/amber/amber?UnS/RedBook>, look at the stanza
about Castle of the Night." to you and Chris.

You page, "Heh.  Funky, ain't it?" to Chris and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Yah... Bey shivered for a bit when he found that bit,
read it, and realized what it meant. o.o" to you and Chris.

The_Prof pages, "Though it appears we got there without all the tests 
the
prophecy suggested." to you and Chris.

You page, "Might be stuff further on through The Void Door.  Or the
other sections." to Chris and The_Prof.

=====
=====

Kanna says, "Motoko or Moriya probably know."

Beowulf nods. "I'm not sure it's all that important at this point."

Kanna says, "That tears it.  This has gone too far.  A member of my
house got this all started, even if it was an accident, even if it was a
mis-judgement.  It's up to me to help set it right." She looks at Bey.
"It's importaint in that it'll help us know what the enenmy can field
against us."

Beowulf says, "I'm hoping that after getting the Eye back to Daffyl,
we'll be able to settle things without too much mess."

Kanna says, "We just have to get the Eye TO Daffyl."

Lian says, "If we can get to him without having to deal with his freaks,
that is."

Kanna says, "And when dealing with Terrorists..." She shakes her head.

=====
=====

The_Prof pages, "*FInally* I get you to admit you need to be involved 
with
this! :)" to you.

You page, "Oh, I'd already decided a while back. :)  This is just IC." 
to
The_Prof.

=====
=====

Kanna says, "Hope for the best, but expect and prepare for the worst."

Beowulf says, "Well, I could always try trumping Saionji or Michelle
again..."

Kanna says, "Save it for when we're with the rest, and can decide on a
plan of action or three.  We need more info from those who've tangled 
with
them the most."

Beowulf nods. "Right. We're heading down to Chaos to talk with them as
soon as possible."

======
======

Beowulf says, "OOC Which is going to have to wait until they get caught
up... ;_;"

John says, "OOC Actually, they're now caught up to you time line wise 
:0"

Kanna OOCly says, "See? *wg*"

=====
=====

The_Prof pages, "Ack... look at the Red Book, the part about Sword of 
the
Void..." to you.

You page, "Wheee!  Outsider Sword!" to The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Oh. For some reason I was thinking Sword of the
Void=Abyss Sword." to you.

You page, "No, the physical description was different." to The_Prof.

You page, "Void != Abyss." to The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Ahh." to you.

=====
=====

Kanna nods.  "This'll be fun.  Actually getting to see Chaos for REAL, 
not
some halfassed false quest."

Lian says, "You have strange ideas of fun, big girl."

Kanna says, "What can I say?  I'm a tourist at heart, Lian."

Lian chuckles softly. "If you say so ... "

Kanna says, "Just keep me far, far away from House Tremere, or the other
possibly hostile houses... I wouldn't mind seeing Gainax or Aesir, I've
got thanks to give both, for helping mom a long way back, and for 
raising
Shinobu-chan."

Beowulf says, "Anyway, recovering the Eye in Leng. Both Motoko and Anno
said it was being held by the head priest of the Yellow Temple, in Leng;
Keitaro kindly made us trumps of the places they'd been on their trip 
with
Nausicaa."

Kanna nods.

Beowulf smiles.

Beowulf says, "Gainax is a very nice place. I haven't been to Aesir yet,
though it sounds like a place I'd enjoy seeing."

Kanna nods.  "Mom only really got to see Anno's office, but I've heard
tales of Aesir from Shinobu Minor."  She smiles.

Beowulf smiles back. "Indeed. They took good care of her, didn't they?"

Kanna nods.  "People might gripe about the path her life may have
took... but she's family, she's competant, and I'm DAMN glad she and
Keitaro went along with us to Akasha.  But I'll get more into that."

Kanna says, "Later, that is."

Beowulf says, "So. Leng. We trumped in by the ruins of Taylor's
stronghold, and rode in to the Yellow Temple. Fortunately, Leng isn't
nearly as bad as its reputation; it's mostly open countryside, populated
by occasional groups of bandits or Outsider cultists, who were pretty
weak."

Beowulf says, "The main threats there are the strongholds of the Really
Powerful Wizards, who fortunately were pretty easy to avoid."

Kanna says, "'Bandit Season' 'Cultist season' 'Bandit season' 'Cultist
season', 'Bandit season!' 'Cultist season!' '....' 'Be vewwwy vewwwwy
quiiet, wew'e hunting yewwow pweists.'"

Kanna blinks, and shakes her head, blushing.

Lian giggles. "Bad, Kanna."

Kanna says, "Dunno what got into me -there-." She grins.

Lian says, "We'll have to find out later."

Beowulf grins at Kanna. "We reached the Yellow Temple without much
trouble, and spent some time casing out the defences -- which had some
pretty strong wards, and monsters in the lake surrounding the temple."

Kanna nods.  "If I'd known Lian was going to be in on this, would've
loaned the Knife... but it helped on our end too, so hey."

Lian says, "We managed anyway, so ..."

Beowulf says, "We then wasted a little time capturing a supply train
going out from the Temple and mind-probing them to get some idea of what
it was like inside, and decided the best way was to capture an inbound
supply train and ride it in in the bag."

Beowulf nods. "I'm not sure it would have helped much, even at the end."

Kanna shrugs.  "Well, hey, I just want to get the most use I -can- out 
of
the thing, after all we went to -get- it..." She looks wry, and munches 
on
a remaining breadfinger.

Beowulf nods at Kanna, smiling a bit. "I can understand that."

Beowulf says, "So, we take out the supply train -- which proved tougher
than we'd expected, since they had a group of about 30 powerful
Outsider-corrupted beasts with them as sacrifices in a rite to bring
through a Major Outsider. Major bad news."

Kanna winces.  "Yes.  Bad news, very bad news."

Beowulf says, "So, we ride the train in -- Mitsune was able to use the
blood from the dead creatures to make up blood-creature versions of 'em 
as
replacements that *she* controlled."

Kanna says, "Slick."

Beowulf says, "We scope out the place, find out a group of priests with
the Head Priest are in the middle of a ritual in the main 'chapel'.
Mitsune and Makoto start their diversion -- which worked very well, 
unlike
the one at Ebenscrux, and involved releasing all the sacrificial animals
-- and we move into the chapel to strike."

Kanna says, "Sounds like them," she chuckles.

Beowulf says, "We take care of the group of lesser priests without *too*
much trouble. Unfortunately, the head priest decides to start firing 
beams
with the Eye -- a flawed *Jewel of Judgement*. He vaporizes half of the
Dragon Knight... Lian probably can tell the Battle of Powers better than 
I
can."

Beowulf says, "Fortunately, they managed to hold his attention for long
enough for me to come up from behind him and knock him out with 
Morkeleb."

Lian grimaces slightly. "I could, but I'd rather forget it. It wasn't 
that
pleasant."

Beowulf says, "Then they managed to close up the rift that had started 
to
open, while I used one of Mother's racked teleports to teleport away the
Cthonian that had just appeared in the doorway."

Kanna stares at that a bit, and looks over at Lian with concern.  "Well,
yeah, I should've figured that Daffyl's eye WOULD be a cousin of the
Jewel, but..."

Kanna says, "Dammit, the Knife -would- have helped for -that-..."

Kanna says, "But still..." She pauses as a thought occurs to her.  "Has
Daffyl's Eye been checked over for Outsider taint?  Been 'cleaned' with
Elder Sign Power?  If the priest could -use- it, he must've been attuned
to it..."

Beowulf says, "Then the Eye stopped doing its 'hang in the air and glow'
funky thing, and fell to the ground inert. At that point, it was all 
over
but for Lian's mass repaving. I had Aeris contact Mitsune and Makoto, 
and
we all trumped out."

Kanna nods.  "And so phase one of Appeasing Daffyl finishes."

=====
=====

Beowulf OOCly tries to remember if he'd had it checked. IIRC, it didn't
have any Outsider taint, right?

John says, "OOC The eye was clean."

Beowulf OOCly nods.

=====
=====

Lian nods. "That was pretty much it, yes. We have the Eye, and the
former temple island is now one big Elder Sign, fully charged."

Beowulf grins a little at that thought.

Beowulf says, "Couldn't think of a better way to leave it."

Lian says, "I wish I could have done that to the whole shadow. But
that'd have required just a leeetle bit more power than I have
available."

Kanna chuckles softly.  "Visit Scenic Leng, don't piddle on the Elder
Sign, it'll piss off Lian, and you don't want to piss her off." She 
grins.

Beowulf grins. "Just don't go meglomanicial on us, Lian."

Kanna says, "Lian?  Meglomaniacal on us?  Hardly... she's the soul of
restraint and good taste."

Lian leans over and target-pokes Kanna's side. "Quiet, you."

Beowulf leans over and pokes Kanna's *other* side. "All right, that's 
us.
Your turn."

Kanna eeps, and grins.  "Yes, Lian... but then how'll I tell you about 
our
adventures in the League, Nedra, and Rebma?"

Lian hms. "You've got a point ... "

Kanna says, "Well, first..." She hands her glass back to Beowulf.  "... 
I
need another coke.  A -large- one.  This is gonna get involved."

Kanna says, "I've always got a point," to Lian.

Lian says, "Good idea. "Another one for me, Bey.

Lian grins at Kanna. "Of course, big girl ... of course."

Beowulf grins, noting all the breadfingers have gone, and starts making 
up
another batch.

=====
=====

Chris pages, "Yup, looks like No Talk tonight. This will likely take
quite a bit to finish. x.x" to you.

You page, "Might work better that way, if John doesn't try forcing the
issue friday for going straight to joining up with Moriya et al.  We'll
have to ask, we could start early in the squid and log straight." to
Chris.

In a page-pose to you, Chris nods.

=====
=====

Kanna chuckles.  "Anyway." She waits until she gets her drink, and
refreshes herself.  "Picking up where last we left each other..."

Lian leans back and listens.

Beowulf waits, smiling a bit.

Kanna says, "After I talked with Bey after I got back from Kadath, I
talked with Great-Grandpa about the knife... oh, he liked your gifts,
Lian.  Added them to his Valar Gods set.  I tried examining the Luggage
with Patternsight and almost got my eye poked out by the logrus locks on
it.  And since -Fuyutsuki- said that you had one key, Bey, and Kuonji 
has
the other, I'm suspecting he's either trying to force you to go to him 
to
get the third, or to wait until you unlock the third lock, then sweep in
with his key.  Got some info on trying to deal with Mageddon as well."

Beowulf nods. "So it's confirmed Kuonji has the third key? I can't say 
I'm
surprised."

Kanna says, "After that, I bopped to Jade and picked up Gina to help
(since you were already busy, Lian), along with some of the Nomad
Artifacer gear in case we'd end up needing it... bopped back to Ember, 
got
ID papers, then got to the MBAS James Brown, Jacqui's ship." She nods.  
"I
tried shadowwalking to the Second Key while Gina held the one I'd
received.  It didn't lead back to her."

Beowulf nods. "Another reason why I haven't been trying as hard with
Hoard as I have been; I don't like dancing to his tune."

Kanna says, "In light of everything, I REALLY wish I hadn't recommended 
to
Jacqui inviting Kuonji aboard for the mission... fortunately, he didn't
-stay-, and yes, at the time I'd made the recommendation I didn't know
about Keitaro's temporary non-lifeness, or the other problems you all 
had
with Kuonji.  I also admit I expected Jacqui to have brought him up 
BEFORE
he got brought over, but still..."

Kanna sighs.  "Well, what was done was done.  The first day ont he ship
was tense.  I actually saw Keitaro -tell Kuonji off- after Kuonji gave 
him
and Shinobu Minor probably the most piss-poor apology I've ever heard
anyone give."

Kanna says, "She also doesn't like Abba."

Beowulf nods. "To be honest, I didn't know Keitaro had taken it that
hard myself. I suppose... I deal with Kuonji by letting his nastiness 
just
roll off my back, not letting it affect me."

Kanna nods.  "I have some thoughts on the entire deal, myself... but
I'll get to that in a bit."

Beowulf says, "I expect others to do the same... so I get surprised when
they don't."

Kanna asks, "Bey?"

=====
=====

John says, "OOC OF course Keitaro would let being killed just roll off 
his
back :)"

Lian . o O ( OOC: EXactly. It's not as if that was something unusual and
terrifying. :P )

=====
=====

Beowulf asks, "Hm?"

Kanna says, "Somebody who goes 'If it makes you feel better, next
time... I will be sure not to miss.' after Keitaro brought up the fact
that he'd dropped dead due to the situation, no, is not high on my 
list."

Beowulf's face sets. "I hadn't heard *that* little tidbit, no."

Lian frowns. "The more I hear about this Kuonji, the less I like it."

Beowulf sits back for a moment, murmuring. "He is trying to make me
angry... I will not get angry... He is trying to make me angry..."

Kanna says, "I believe Kuonji was telling the truth he wasn't after
Mageddon.  Jacqui had Justice out during the time, I think she's
partially attuned to it now.  But my trust levels of her... she's amoral
and stupidly arrogant."

Kanna sighs, and reaches over to Beowulf, offering a hand.

Kanna says, "Basically, it came down to Kuonji or Shinobu and Keitaro.
Fortunately for us all, Kuonji effectively was voted off."

Beowulf takes the hand in thanks. "Right." He sighs. "I'm also trying 
not
to do what she wants me to do. Confound her expectations, if nothing
else."

Beowulf says, "Great-grandfather Anno also let slip that she has her own
plan to go after the Master Spikard, a very reckless one... oh, and that
apparently she's a descendent of Anno as well; he called her a
grandchild."

Kanna squeezes, gently.  "My thought on it?  Well... it ties back to the
Black heart.  'Beware your rivals, Heir of the Lion'... if Kuonji -is-
Lion's Cub... rivals could mean all those against Annadil's heir... or 
all
those in -competition- who could -also- become Herald Canidates. You, 
me,
Naussica, Moriya, Lucien... Pyricorn knows we're dipping into dangerous
stuff the past few months."

Kanna blinks.  "Lion's Cub in truth, then."

Beowulf smiles crookedly. "Dangerous stuff, yes."

Kanna says, "It could very well be that Kuonji, if she has access to the
Black Heart, which I don't doubt, is trying to be preemptive, as you as
Unicorn's Heir, her as Lion's Cub, and Taylor as Lion's Heir, would be 
at
most risk/reward in all this."

Kanna says, "Taylor's dead.  The rest of us are working against the
Outsiders.  Which leaves you and Her, and oh -look- at this Library you
happen to have stumbled upon.."

Beowulf says, "Um." He sighs. "Touched by Prophecy... is very
uncomfortable." A corner of his mouth quirks up. "As you know."

Kanna shrugs.  "But I don't know.  It's all supposition... and yeah,
tell me about it." She rubs her throat again.

Beowulf says, "More like, 'as I happen to have been given a key to.'
Someone's manipulating things."

Kanna says, "And that always sucks."

Kanna says, "To what ends, damned if I know.  Other than either extreme
bad or extreme good."

Lian asks, "There's always someone manipulating things. The question is,
is he or she or it friend or foe?"

Kanna says, "I trust what Yig told me, and what parts of the Black Heart
ended up being related to that.  The rest, I'm not so sure.  Prophesy is
always a dodgy way to have one's life run... guidelines, but nothing
more."

Kanna asks, "Though, after we deal with Daffyl... Lian?"

Beowulf nods. "I'm playing along, so long as it appears to be doing some
good. But... well, before everything started going to pot, after that 
vase
that was stolen on the zep was literally delivered into my hands, I was
going to take some time out before the final march to Hoard by checking 
up
on who sent it to me and who was playing games."

Lian asks, "Yes, Kanna?"

Kanna asks, "Now that you've got Eldah Sign Powah coming out of your
pores... and I've got a big-ass Butter Knife I've been pondering to
test... you feel up to making a quick trip to Lipun to see a Ghost about 
a
'Gate'?"

Kanna says, "I would be DAMN interested in seeing what a Temporal Scry
would reveal at the top of that mountain."

A slow predatory smile creeps over Beowulf's face.

Lian says, "You're not the only one, big girl ..."

Beowulf says, "That would be most interesting."

Kanna says, "May be nothing, but... well, it's a loose thread I want
tied off or shorn off."

Kanna says, "Anyway, enough on -Kuonji-.  Back to the League."

Beowulf nods.

Kanna says, "There was a lot of command doginess for a bit, given that
she'd even appeared breifly.  Like I said, I've never seen Keitaro so
-mad-, even though it was partially justified, but Jacqui was a bit 
pissed
too, and stabbed herself with Justice before sis and I could put out the
patternflames.  Mutsumi spent a lot of the time playing peacemaker, and
Shinobu Minor was obviously supporting Keitaro.  We got to the League,
were acting all on the up and up to clear customs, contacted the 
Monitors
so we could avoid the same sort of thing that happend in CAFAM..."

Kanna says, "... which, well, turned out to work against us, 'cause the
Taylors had infiltrated the Akashan Commerce and Government."

Somewhere on the muck, Foxtrot has disconnected.

Kanna says, "And in turn had been -Commandeered- by agents from -House
Tremere-."

Lian blinks. "Ow, now it's getting complicated ... "

Beowulf blinks. "Aunt Nanami mentioned that, yes. What a mess."

Kanna says, "Recall that also, the League's in very -fast- time... which
meant that Taylor's operations there had effectively been there for
effectively centuries.  Entrenched was not a nice way to put it.  House
Tremere was just a lot more recent."

Beowulf just shakes his head... yow.

Kanna says, "So, when we heard that 'D'Arden Industries' had bought one 
of
Sentinel's -moons- to be used as 'Jacqu's Pleasure House Of Many Willing
Bitches', by one of the Blood Taylor's who Jacqui had been pursuing...
well, the first week was very hectic."

Beowulf facepalms. "Dear Ghu. Aunt Nanami didn't mention *that* detail 
in
her report."

Lian blinks again. "Jacqui's Pleasure House ... " She shakes her head.

Kanna says, "Lots of suspicious recent events and news, like, oh, the
former Prime Minister being killed by Byhakee... Mutsumi did a trump 
scry,
I think, and got in contact with the Holy Tree of Akasha."

Beowulf says, "Right; I remember talking with Jacqui about the Byhakee."

Kanna says, "The Taylor family had pretty much a lock on certain parts 
of
the government, yes.  Fortunately, the Emperor and the preisthood wasn't
compromised.  So we left Aurora and sent a decoy ship off to do things
while we went to aid the Holy Tree... for it feared that groups of
Chaosians wanted to cut out its 'Heart'."

Kanna drinks her coke to clear her throat.

Kanna says, "Her heart is Silya, the Ring of Wood."

Beowulf asks, "...good grief." He looks rather boggled. "How did it get
there?"

Kanna says, "We're... still not quite sure." She flips back many pages 
in
her diary/sketchbook.  "The Holy Tree had records of those who planted 
and
nurtured it, raising it to awareness... the 'Sidar' she showed me looked
somewhat like the Elder Gods or the Arden Elves, with violet eyes."

Kanna shows Bey and Lian the sketches.

Lian looks at the sketches.

Beowulf looks at them.

The Sidar are tall, thin, and elfin in appearance with strangely colored
hair and violet eyes. The Sidar look rather elvish in some ways, yes. 
And
you can see some resemblance to the Elder Gods as well.

Beowulf nods slowly. "Yes, they match the pictures of Sidar that I've 
seen
on various Sidar ruins."

Kanna says, "But anyway, we camped out in the Tree's Greenhouse...
Jacqui did a spot-on Moriya impersonation, which helped a lot... the
decoy ship got blown up by the Akashan government... and then the first
group of Chaosians showed up, pretending to be gardeners."

Lian says, "Interesting ... as Bey said, they look like Sidar ... but
there's also a resemblance to the Elder Gods." She looks at Kanna, "And
even a remote one to the Artificers."

Kanna raises her eyebrows at Lian.  "Ooohhhkay?  I've seen some images
Gina's shown me... but that's a good point, you never really see their
full faces in those images."

Kanna says, "We fought the Chaosian group, managed to take only a few
prisoners, and from brainthrottling learned that Tremere had compromized
the Taylors, led by Lord Gaav, a rather ruthless sort."

Beowulf rubs his chin thoughtfully. "I... see. Looks like a few more
bits of history could use a nice jigsaw puzzle to fit into."

Kanna nods.  "Mom and I might look into it someday."

Beowulf nods. "And I, when this is all over and done with."

Lian says, "A lot of people will."

====
====

John says, "OOC I'm going to go to bed soon, but I need to take a bath, 
so
I'll leave this open while I bathe."

Beowulf OOCly nods.

====
====

Kanna says, "So, we tried to catch a few more of Gaav's flunkies, and
rather failed miserably.  One escaped, the other Shinobu Minor and 
Keitaro
had to chase over a good long period of time before beheading him.  
Which
was lucky for them, because they got to miss out on our near-panic
experience when Akasha Prime's sun went Nova."

Lian asks, "They made the sun go nova?"

Beowulf nods. "Aeris said a little about that... she went down briefly
after everything that went down there, and I had to reboot her."

Kanna closes her eyes, tight, head bowed.  "Nova bombs, Lian.  That's 
our
best estimation.  They used NOVA BOMBS in an INHABITED SYSTEM!"  Her 
hands
tighten, relentlessly into fists.  This has the unfortunate side effect 
of
shattering her glass, but Kanna ignores it.

Beowulf says, "Oh... dear... GHU." His entire body locks up for a
moment, not even managing to clench his fists.

Kanna exclaims, "If it wasn't for sis, Morgy, and Aeris sheilding the
populated worlds of the Akashan system, and if it wasn't for sis -
Building
a new SUN-, there wouldn't BE an Akashan League anymore!"

Kanna says, "Oh, nevermind the Primal Chaos Bomb that went off at the 
base
of the Holy Tree when we tried to trump it away, or Aeris and Morgy
shunting the detonation."

Beowulf closes his eyes for a moment, forehead twitching.

Lian seems to stunned to say anything, just sitting there staring at
Kanna.

Kanna takes deep breaths, her eyes finally opening.  Tears have
gatheered at the corner of her eyes, but they don't fall.  Her hands
unclench, and the remains of the glass fall away, the shards in her palm
ignored.

Beowulf comes out of his lockup, sees the bits of glass fall away, and
conjures up some bandages for her hand.

Kanna says, "To say Gaav of House Tremere was 'Ruthless' was something 
of
an understatement.  He was WILLING to wipe out the entirety of the 
Akashan
culture just to get at a spikard and Mageddon."  She takes some more 
deep
breaths, and almost abstractly notices the fact that her hand's been
injured.  She wordlessly offers it to Bey to clean and bandage.

Beowulf says, "...no wonder Aeris didn't want to talk much about it."

Beowulf bandages the hand.

Lian says, "... I hope this Gaav is really, really dead. If not ..."

Kanna nods.  "As it stands, the orbital colonies, the ships in the
system, the uninhabited planets... are all gone.  It's got a new Sun
though, built Ember Tough..."

Kanna looks at Lian.  "Yes.  He is," she states flatly.

Beowulf manages a weak smile. "Yes, you and Gabrielle'd be good at that,
wouldn't you?"

Lian just nods.

Kanna says, "With that having happened, we then worked to try to figure
out how to get to Mageddon before he did."

Beowulf says, "Good. Very good. Although it means we don't get to kill 
him
ourselves."

Kanna says, "As it turned out, D'Arden Enterprises had a mining concern
out in one of the asteroid systems.  Where they were building an Akashan
Stargate big enough to open a wormhole to let a -planet- through."

Kanna says, "After some observation, we determined that somehow, long in
the past, Mageddon must have entered the league, traveled down one of 
the
Wormholes, and the wohomhole was closed behind it.  The gravitic
signatures were indicative of such an event... and D'Arden was building
the gate to pry the 'scab' open again."

Kanna says, "So, we summoned the Funk Fleet and smashed the ring, and 
then
figured out how to have sis and Mutsumi open the gate just enough to 
send
a probe through to scan the other side."

Beowulf nods.

Kanna says, "The probe found a completely inert-matter galaxy and pocket
universe on the other side..."

Kanna says, "... and a planetary mass moving superluminal for the opened
gate at 60 light years an hour."

Kanna says, "Mageddon was -definitely- not dormant."

Beowulf says, "Ack. x.x"

Kanna says, "Fortunately, we had a few options at that point, and shoved
another of the planetary bodies in the asteroid system through the
wormhole gate in the other direction, and when both it -and- Mageddon 
were
in the wormhole..."

Kanna says, "We closed the gate."

Kanna says, "One of our probes that we sent along got a -very-
interesting picture of the edges of the wormhole closing in before it 
went
offline.  We haven't gotten a trump signal back from it since."

% You have new mail in /var/mail/pmoyer

Beowulf hmmms, and tries to figure out what that would mean.

Kanna says, "I'm inclined to believe that Mageddon is now dead.  Or
reduced to a mathematical abstraction, or gone wherever things caught in
collapsing Akashan wormholes go."

Beowulf says, "That would be good, yes."

Lian says, "We'll see. If we hear stories about a planet destroying
shadows, we know it's still out there."

Kanna says, "As the akashan's have seen a few things get caught in
collapsing wormholes, and they've NEVER shown up again.  Period."

Kanna nods.  "I -hope- not, Lian.  But I can't fully rest until I know 
for
sure, but we may never know."

Kanna says, "Then with that taken care of, as far as we knew, we went 
back
to the Holy Tree in case Gaav tried anything else, if he hadn't already
bailed."

Kanna says, "It was that point when Aeris picked up that two of his
flunkies were using the logrus in a nebula... Gina suggested that they
could very well have been possibly trying to change it to antimatter to
dump on Akasha.  Well, we couldn't have -that-, so sis and Morgy tried 
to
start changeing the nebula into a star while Jacqui summoned the Jewel 
to
shut down Logrus in the League."

Kanna says, "That's when the Byhakee hoardes started attacking the
Greenhouse Dome."

Beowulf thwaps his forehead. "One thing after another..."

Kanna says, "And then the Outsidery Bubbles appeared."

Lian asks, "Yog-Sothoth again?"

Kanna says, "We had Jacqui shift to shutting down Outsider Power."

Kanna says, "I would guess so.  We jsut had a Bad Feeling, then Jacqui
shut off the Outsidery stuff, and the bubbles went away."

Beowulf looks somewhat shaken at the bubbles. "Lovely. Not again..."

Kanna says, "Also killed all the Byhakee so that they landed on the dome
and shattered it, but..."

Kanna says, "So, while we were tryign to dodge the rain of dead Byhakee,
the badgers attacked."

Beowulf asks, "...badgers?"

Kanna says, "And one of them bit off Jacqui's arm, the one that was
holding the Jewel."

Beowulf winces.

Kanna says, "It got -really- nasty after that, as the one lead badger 
was
relentless going after Jacqui... even after I shot him in the ass with
Beryllina, he KEPT GOING.  Jacqui went to Primal Form to escape after
losing legs, Moonshade ran the badger through with Justice, and sis
summoned the Jewel to shut down Logrus the rest of the way."

Kanna says, "The head badger was Gaav.  Moonshade killed him."

Lian winces. "Sounds bad ... but at least you survived, and won."

Kanna says, "The rest of the badgers were just... badgers.  Planted
there a long time ago.  And yes, we did."  She sighs.

Beowulf says, "I'd say he got what he deserved. Even from a legal
standpoint, it was a clear case of self-defence."

Beowulf looks uncommonly stern when he pronounces that.

Beowulf says, "I'd like to see any Chaosian prosecutor try to make a
case out of *that*," he growls.

Kanna says, "The rest of the badgers were just... badgers.  Planted
there long before we got there."

Kanna says, "The rest of the month plus was  pretty tame compared to the
first week... flushing out the remaining Blood Taylor and Tremere
influences in the League."

Beowulf nods.

Beowulf says, "It sounds like something long overdue," he says, still
looking somewhat grim at the thought that anyone might try to make 
trouble
over Gaav's fate.

Kanna says, "I dunno what the Chaosian Courts would make of it, Bey.
Jacqui had Gaav's head in a jar for a while, and she did it when I was
still recovering from the badger attack.  But anyway.  I doubt House
Tremere's happy with me for now."

Kanna says, "On the flip side, we're on pretty good terms with the
Leauge, and the Holy Tree likes us, so..." She smiles slightly, albeit
looking... world weary.

Beowulf says, "Let 'em be unhappy. It's their own damn fault for letting
someone like him run around loose."

Kanna nods.  "Well, we had suspicions that part of Tremere was using
Outsider Power... these sorts of things confirmed it."

Beowulf nods back. "Have you reported that part of it to Moriya and
Motoko?"

Kanna says, "So, we came back home.  I updated mom, learned about
Merhallow's theft and some of its members, and told her about my
upcoming teamup with Lucien.  Checked in with Aunt Nanami, who was
generally pleased with how the mission went, save the head-in-a-jar
part, and honestly hadn't expected things to get that bad.  As Jay and
Silent Bob were idiot Blood Taylors.  And yes, I trumped to Moriya and
informed him of the situation with Tremere.  Went to Yig, and nothing 
bit
me."

Kanna grins a bit.

Beowulf says, "*Good*." He smiles a bit. "Glad you've got that monkey 
off
of your back. Though I do wish there was something I could have done to
ease the load a bit on you."

Kanna says, "Learned also about Lowen's little thing about NOT having 
been
party to Cousin Shaft's death, and not having House Alars's Logrusfoil. 
And that a second Phoenix Egg turned up."

Beowulf blinks. "A second one did?"

Beowulf OOCly can't remember if he'd been told that ICly or not. o.o

Kanna says, "Then I ended up talking with Cousin Nagisa and Aunt Kozue
about the Rebmaquois, getting info, advice, and the persmission to 
recruit
Ruka."

Beowulf says, "I'll have to let Bessie know that she can stop looking 
for
one now."

Kanna nods.  "Apparenly one flew to Uncle Miki when he trumped to Yig to
make his report back, sent by Aunt Juri.  Given that the first one got
blasted by Primal Chaos...."

Beowulf winces. "Yes, that'd do in most things."

Kanna smiles.  "Spent a -very- nice evening with Ruka, discussing the
akashan and rebma situations over dinner at the base... then rendevoused
with Lucien the next day."   Her cheeks have a fetching blush when she
says this.

Beowulf says, "After Bessie told me about being rescued by the Phoenix, 
I
asked her to see if she could find a replacement for the Egg that was
destroyed."

========================================
========================================

Beowulf says, "OOC And this looks like it might be a good stopping
point, before you get into the Rebma mission, as John said he's dying 
and
I'm starting to."

Kanna OOCly says, "Yeah, same here. *wg*"

Lian . o O ( OOC: Looks like this is it for tonight then. )

Beowulf says, "OOC I wanted a private session because I thought we'd be
going over the Red Book prophecy in combo with the Yig prophecy, and 
that
never really happened. o.o"

Kanna OOCly nods.

Kanna OOCly says, "Well, we still might, and some of it did, in its
sense."

=======
=======

You page, "Okay, Talk Tomorrow. *wg*  But got some good stuff in here, 
at
least..." to Chris.

Chris pages, "If we continue in a public room tomorrow, we'll still get
maximum boggle. :)" to you.

You page, "True. :)" to Chris.

=======
=======

Kanna OOCly says, "Anyway, pick up tomorrow when we're all here and
ready?"

Beowulf OOCly nods.

Kanna OOCly waves out, then.  G'night, all...

========


Beowulf OOCly waves.

Kanna OOCly says, "Okay, picking up where we left off, will spam some
lines to get us back on track."

Kanna OOCly says, "(fyi, Kanna was just about ready to go into the
Rebmaquois part of the adventure...)"

===========================================
===========================================

Kanna nods.  "Apparenly one flew to Uncle Miki when he trumped to Yig to
make his report back, sent by Aunt Juri.  Given that the first one got
blasted by Primal Chaos...."

Beowulf winces. "Yes, that'd do in most things."

Kanna smiles.  "Spent a -very- nice evening with Ruka, discussing the
akashan and rebma situations over dinner at the base... then rendevoused
with Lucien the next day."   Her cheeks have a fetching blush when she
says this.

Beowulf says, "After Bessie told me about being rescued by the Phoenix, 
I
asked her to see if she could find a replacement for the Egg that was
destroyed."

Kanna mmms, and nods.  "Well, at least we have various routes for
them..." She pauses.  "Weren't you saying there were strong ties between
Phoenix and Cathuria?  I mean, sure, we're assuming that from what I
learned at Yig, but..."

Beowulf says, "Yes. Half a mo..." He gets out his notes again and starts
flipping through.

Kanna nods, and settles back, and drinks some more coke.  This is
hampered by the fact that her glass has been shattered.

Kanna looks down at her bandaged hand, blinks, and ohs.  "Oh.  Right."

Beowulf winces and gets her another glass and another coke. "...want
this one spiked a little?"

Kanna shakes her head.  "Nah.. thank you, but no.  I'd rather have my
facilities about me, even though I could sleep it off in here if need 
be."
 She smiles slightly.

Kanna accepts the drink, and holds it carefully.

Kanna says, "Oh, and I am reminded, before we move on further... one
other interesting factoid about Kuonji, and I promise this'll be the
last I speak of him to you two for a while relating to current
events..."

Beowulf says, "Let's see... oh?" He listens expectently.

Kanna sips.  "Back when she joined up, breifly, she claimed to be an
Akashan Citizen.  Now, I didn't know how to take that, but it pretty
much ended up being moot as she didn't stay.  But as we were doing the
Taylor cleanups, I hit the InfoNet to try to confirm or deny."

Kanna says, "As it turns out, she was telling the truth.  She -is- a
naturalized Akashan citizen."

Kanna says, "But the thing is, the Akashans rarely DO that."

Beowulf's eyebrows rise a little. "Indeed."

Lian says, "Interesting ... "

Kanna says, "Generally, only for some great service to the League... she
was naturalized some time after your time in Panopticon, bey... but when 
I
went and checked out the appropriate timeframe after converting from 
Amber
to Akashan... I couldn't -find- anything.  No details of any event that
looked like it could count."

Kanna says, "It was weird, but I felt it worth mentioning."

Kanna says, "Some coverup, perhaps, but..." She shrugs, and drinks more 
of
her coke, settling back on her couch again.

Beowulf nods. "I suppose it could have been hushed up by the Akashan
govt., if they had fallen under the sway of the Taylors by that point...
or if he was working *with* the Taylors?"

Kanna considers.  "No, I think her hatred of Taylor and the Blood
Taylors is pretty entrenched.  If I was judging her reaction to cousin
shaft's death accurately, she looked pretty shaken."

Beowulf nods. "Hm. Well. Another mystery, it seems... you weren't able 
to
find anything about it when you were helping the Emperor clean up?"

Kanna says, "Oh, D'Arden Industries was pretty entrenched for a few
centuries by that point, but they were playing things slow, pretty much,
until Jay and Silent Bob got there." She shrugs.  "Just more random
factoids about the Mysterious Kuonji that unsettles me... and nope. More
info than I ever care to remember about Taylor's operations there, 
pretty
much -nothing- on Tremere's, as the Tremere folks didn't keep records, 
and
we'd killed them all."

Kanna asks, "But that's to wonder about another time.  Now, Phoenixes?"

Beowulf nods. "Right. Well, to start with, I think I told you that the
Phoenix was originally an animal-god on the level of the Serpent or the
Unicorn, pre-Logrus, but got severely weakened in the War of the Gods, 
as
far as I can tell?"

Kanna nods. "Yup, that you did."

Beowulf nods. "And it took refuge in our universe after the creation of
the Pattern and the Logrus stabilized/carved it out of Shadow. 
Presumably
because either the Serpent or the Unicorn felt sorry for it, although it
may have been useful in other ways; it's said to have a lot of hidden
wisdom."

Kanna hmmms, thoughtfully.  "Well, dreams tend to represent hidden lore
and wisdom... just look at Tir'na'nog...  so it'd make sense if it went
off to live in the City of Dreams."

Beowulf says, "According to the info in the Library and Annadil's
notebooks, it is associated with Cathuria, and sometimes takes people
there. Which we could deduce from the Phoenix Egg, but it's nice to have
some confirmation."

Kanna nods.  "So, all the Phoenix Eggs are just... incarnations of it?
Like how Phoenxies are represented in general mythology?"

Beowulf says, "I couldn't really tell, looking at the material, whether
there is just one Phoenix -- like the Unicorn and the Serpent -- many
Phoenixes -- or one Great Phoenix and a lot of lesser 'children'. There
were some conflicting legends."

Kanna shrugs.  "WEll, from a practical standpoint, why worry 'bout it? 
AS
long as we've got another Phoenix Egg... and once we retrieve
Merehallow... all we'll need is to grab Nausicaa and her spikard, and
we'll be much better off."

Beowulf says, "One *very* interesting legend I found: supposedly those
blessed most especially by the Phoenix could 'gain its power to immolate
themselves and be reborn in the full flower of youth.' They could fly
across Shadow, and would (naturally) have great power over fire."

Kanna raises her eyebrows at -that- little nugget.

Kanna says, "Iinnnnteresting.  A bit involved for a beauty tip,
though...."

Beowulf says, "Given the Phoenix's apparent dedication to the Balance...
well, it gave me some interesting thoughs about a couple of people, but
we'll leave that for now."

Kanna hehs.  "Right.  Back to my storytime."  She winks.

Beowulf says, "As for Cathuria itself -- I caught several refrernces to 
it
as the 'Aerie of the Phoenix', and some hints that the Phoenix itself is
shielding it."

Kanna makes some notes in her sketchbook about all this, before closing 
it
again.

Kanna says, "Well, hey, it'd want to keep its hideyhole protected..."

Beowulf says, "Oh, and one other speculation I found -- a couple of
sources thought it might be the Amber connected to the Air pattern,
which explains how it moves around so much."

Kanna raises her eyebrows again at that.  "So where would Tir'na'nog fit
into this?  The 'anchor' for the entire deal, or Cathuria is where the
castle in the sky goes the rest of the time it's not around?"

Beowulf nods. "A good question; the sources I found for that speculation
didn't go that far."

Kanna shrugs.  "Eh, we'll figure it out."

Beowulf nods.

Kanna says, "So, anyway."

Beowulf quirks a grin. "Right. Anyway."

Kanna takes another long drink of her coke.  "Ruka and I hooked up with
Lucien and his crew, who were doing an underwater wargame.  We discussed
the worries we had about the Bloc having Outsider or Chaosian support, 
and
made plans to visit Uncle Derith's old mansion in Nedra, if it was still
around."

Kanna says, "Popped down to Amber to let Aunt Yuriko know about our plan
to sneak in, got some more information and advice... and it seems that
trumps to places in Rebma can still work, but we didn't dare try scrying
or transporting them, in case they had Trump Masters on the other end.
Instead, we decided to rest up before heading out the next day, to trump
to the southeast of Arden to make a coast approach."

Beowulf nods, as that makes good tactical sense.

Kanna says, "Of course, things weren't that simple, as the damned Red
Death has pretty much taken over the ENTIRE COASTLINE between Arden and
the sea, and is spreading into the forest and down to the south and 
north,
and even has some sea-mats of fungus..."

Lian starts. "The Red Death has returned?"

Beowulf chokes a bit on his Mountain Dew. "Bwa? Dear Ghu, how'd it get
there?"

Beowulf's eyes narrow. "And how are we going to clean it out?"

Kanna nods.  "I alerted Uncle Green and the Rangers, but they were busy
fighting shapeshifters in Arden.  It's apparently been there a while...
the Red Death grows fast, but not THAT fast.  Cleanout options are Fire,
Acid, or possibly Elder Sign Power, I'd think."

Lian says, "If it's not done already, there are ... ways."

Kanna says, "This was several days ago, mind."

Kanna says, "We didn't dare trying to make the approach through the Red
Death, given the stories I'd heard about it from the crisis, so we 
trumped
down further south, near Mystara, to enter through the remains of one of
the Coral Circle shadows the next day."

Beowulf looks worried. "And shapeshifters in Arden, too, that are
keeping the Rangers completely tied up? That sounds like the makings of 
a
full-scale assault."

Kanna says, "I didn't get full details, sad to say."  She sighs.
"DAmmit, Uncle Green just doesn't NEED this.  Arden's suffered too much
over the past decades."

Kanna says, "I breifly debated having sis dump Acid from Ember right
there and then, but didn't want to alert anyone, as we were still trying
to sneak.  Presumably, the rangers will now be able to start pushing it
from the forest 'naturally', so as to look like they just encountered 
it."

Beowulf says, "It sounds like we need to start paying a bit more
attention to bolstering our neighbors... especially since the
re-appearance of Rebma has probably re-disrupted things by altering the
balance they'd partly adjusted to."

Lian nods. "Can you call them later and check? If there are still
problems, we can go down to take another look and do something about
it."

Kanna nods.  "Well, the Water Pattern is still Fubared, so uintil that's
fixed, the elemental imbalance is still there.  I will, before we head
out, Lian."

Beowulf says, "Count me in as well, as soon as we deal with the
Serpent's Horn. Come to think of it, they could be said to have started 
it
by setting off the Primal Chaos during their assault on the Lodge."

Kanna says, "I don't know if this is Alars, though."

Kanna says, "Given that it's along the -coast-, I'm inclined to think 
the
Bloc."

Beowulf says, "No... I suspect Alars and the Horn were using each other
for that assault, and wonder if that gave the Horn a toehold to expand
their operations in Arden."

Kanna blinks.  "Since when was Serpent's Horn involved with Outsiders?"
She shakes her head.  "Anyway, we can analyze more later."

Beowulf nods. "Right. But someone should talk to Uncle Tylor about
coordinating things around the Golden Circle, and *soon*."

Kanna nods.  "I imagine mom will; I gave her a report on everything we
encountered to forward to him."

Kanna says, "And my various hypothesies and concerns."

Beowulf nods again. "Sounds like it's in safe hands, though I still want
to ask him about it."

Beowulf says, "Anyway. After you bypassed the Red Death..."

Kanna says, "That's purely your perogative, Bey."  She quirks a smile.
"I'm trying to keep the info-spread on the bloc toned down, though, so 
as
to keep the Bloc from finding out how much we've learned."  Kanna drinks
more coke.  "So, we travelled through the recovering remains of Mu from
the coast.  Along the way, we encountered dead sea critters that had 
been
lightning-bolted and chewed up by some form of sea predator that
fortunately we never actually encountered.  I know there's way too many
types of those things underwater, but are there any Outsider minions 
that
shoot underwater lightning and capable of chomping a man in half?  I'm
just curious."

Kanna says, "Also managed to avoid an underwater group of magic-eating
Will'o'the'Wisps, and kept plugging on towards Nedra."

Kanna says, "Made our way through the coral reefs that Derith used to
guard the entrances to Nedra proper, managed to breach its defenses 
pretty
decently, as we were on guard... then moved through the recovering Coral
Forests.  -Damn-, that place must've been beautiful in its prime."

Beowulf nods. "Sounds like just a giant electric eel... and there squids
of variants of them around Shadow. Probably not anything to be 
especially
worried about."

Beowulf says, "At least as Outsider minions go."

Kanna says, "Oh, okay." She hehs.  "Some of Lucien's paranoia must've 
bled
over to me, then."  She shrugs, and sips her drink.

Beowulf says, "Did you have a chance to do any sketches along the way?" 
He
looks a bit wistful.

Kanna nods, and flips her sketchbook open again, flipping back a few
pages to the timeperiod of when they were heading through Nedra but not
before everything else that happened.  She shows it to beowulf and Lian,
and a sketch of Derith's Mansion in its prime is also there.  "We 
trudged
on through the forest... and started noticing a building bad feeling. 
Ambushed a -Chaosian- ambush in a gull"

Kanna says, "In a gulley leading to one of the major shipping lanes
through Nedra to Rebma... and then learned WHY we were getting the bad
feeling."

Beowulf examines the sketches appreciatively. "Nice."

Kanna smiles slightly.  "Thank you."  She then takes the sketchbook
back, and takes a deep breath.

Kanna says, "There was a Black Road forged through the canyon."

Kanna says, "Just.... total -blackness-, along the canyon floor, witho
nothing living swimming above it."

Kanna continues, dryly, "And, of course, in order to get to Derith's
place in -any- sort of a timely fasion, we had to cross the thing."

Lian asks, "How did you do it?"

Beowulf looks vaguely queasy at the description.

Beowulf says, "Whoever they're involved with in Chaos, they're DAMN
powerful. It takes a *lot* of skill to make something like that..."

Beowulf says, "I'm surprised the area was actually recovering; I've
heard those things tend to warp shadows they cross."

Kanna says, "Well, also, there's a lack of a Water Pattern around to
help resist its formation... but basically, Lucien used Greyswandir, and 
I
used my pattern defense, to 'cut' our way through the road to the other
side of the canyon.  Lucien escorted Kitiara, I escorted Ruka, and
Morrigan used her natural Chaosian/Abyss/whatever stuff to protect
Pirotase."

Kanna says, "It... was rather unsettlingly like a Patternwalk... the
feeling of ONE misstepp leading to your end...."

Kanna shivers, slightly, and takes anther drink of coke.

Beowulf asks, "That thing needs to be cut, and -fast-. It gives whatever
Chaosian baddies the Rebmaquois are sleeping with an express highway
straight into wherever it leads... all the way to Rebma, right?"

Kanna says, "But then we made it through, just in time to have to hide
from a patrol -using- the Black Road to get to Rebma, 200 strong, riding
sea-horses and adaptaed for underwater travel, flying under a shark 
flag."

Kanna nods.  "That's what we believe."

Beowulf looks thoroughly disgusted.

Beowulf asks, "Lovely. Who would lend themselves to... *that*?"

Kanna says, "Fortunately, Lucien shifted Greyswandir into a wall of
Pattern Coral to hide us, and they just swam on by."

Beowulf nods. "Pattern Coral might have been a problem, but probably the
sheer strength of Logrus energy in the area blanked it out."

Kanna says, "My suspicion would be elements of House Darios... Moriya 
was
mentioning his own suspicions of them being under Outsider influence, 
and
they -are- one of the major seafaring houses." She nods. "Mind, we 
didn't
stick around to ask any questions." She quirks a smile.

Kanna says, "Several hours later, we encountered the remains of Derith's
mansion."

Beowulf says, "I can't say I'm surprised." His mouth quirks in return.

Kanna sobers.  "Most of the upstairs had already been looted, but we
managed to find a secret entrance down to a subterranian grotto... well,
not as secret as we wanted, as we found out later, but..." She sighs.

Beowulf raises an eyebrow. "You'll get to that later, I assume?" He
smiles.

Kanna says, "Went down further, and encountered various minor objects
Uncle Derith had stashed away there... including a talking metal head
called 790 from some place called 'The Cluster', who awoke when we came
by, sensing Lucien was of Derith's blood, I think, and proclaimed its
undying love for me."  She quirks a smile again, and blushes.

Beowulf rolls his eyes. "Oh, dear." He grins. "So, you manage to hold 
off
your other suitor so far?"

Lian just ... looks at Kanna. "A talking metal head. Proclaimed its love
for you."

Kanna says, "He was quite, QUITE Jealous of Ruka when I said he was my
boyfriend.  And 790 and Lucien did NOT get along, but I was able to
sweet-talk 790 into leading us through the protective maze that 
surrounded
Derith's vaults."

Beowulf says, "Tell you what. If it insists on dueling anyone for your
love, send it after the Pirate Roberts. :)"

Kanna nods at Lian.  "Yes it did.  Glassy video-display like eyes, kinda
annoying, but if you're patient, he's got LOTS of info..." She looks at
Bey, and -laughs-.

Kanna says, "Oh Pyricorn, I hadn't thought of THAT...."

====
====

Beowulf says, "OOC I see I'm going to have to find out more info on this
series. ^_^"

John says, "OOC I have the first four movies, Travis :)"

Chris pages, "[Lian] . o O (Mental note: Create Rust spell to use on
790.)" to you.

====
====

Lian shakes her head. "Ohboy."

Kanna says, "Well, he -was- flattering, in an amusing way..." She
blushes.  "... and Ruka took it well.  I think he was amused, too."  She
grins.

Beowulf says, "Just so long as Mr. Metal Head doesn't shoot beams from 
his
eyes, or something, and fry Ruka."

Kanna says, "So, we chatted, learned more about 790's assistance of
Derith in making the maze, and maneuvered our way through the traps...
many of which had already been -sprung-."

Beowulf's eyebrows climb towards the hairline. "Sprung?"

Kanna says, "Somebody had been there before us, recently, and was
apparently using many many Stanley Tweedles to defuse the traps."

Kanna says, "... and shadows of Uncle Derith."

Kanna looks sickened.

Lian says, "... cute."

Beowulf looks skyward. "Why does it always seem like we arrive at vast
lore storehouses just to participate in a race for the prize?"

Kanna says, "As the bodies were fresh.  Perhaps somebody HAD figured we
were coming, and were trying to get ahead... since eventually we came up
against a barrier shield that 790 said had NOT been there before."

Kanna says, "So, I tried to Patternsight it."

Kanna says, "We got Logrus-Lighninged for our troubles."

Beowulf winces. "Bad idea, right?"

Beowulf says, "Owwwww."

Kanna says, "Then Lucien and I and Ruka tried parrying the lightning."

Kanna says, "Which set off ANOTHER explosion."

Beowulf's entire face scrunches up. "Well, I see that *you* survived, at
least."

Lian asks, "What is it with you and explosions, Kanna?"

Kanna says, "Which left us in various states of disrepair, Pirotase and
Kitiara unconcious, the rest of us somewhat standing... I had sis slap
healing spells on those of us that needed it..."

Kanna says, "-just- as the hoarde of Feral Stanley Tweedles started
attacking us from beyond the dropped barrier."

Kanna looks at Lian.  "I honestyly REALLY wish I knew, Lian.  I need to
get some way of detecting things that don't SET OFF the damn traps,
too..."

Beowulf just ...'s, completely lacking for a response.

Beowulf wiggles his fingers experimentally, and looks over at Lian.
"Think we could make her some detection gear that might stand a little
less chance of setting off traps?"

Lian says, "Possibly ... I'll have to think about it."

Kanna says, "So, I and Ruka and Morrigan and Lucien started fighting the
hoarde... somebody tried using Logrus to kidnap the two unconcious 
ladies,
but Lucien chopped off the tendrils and went after whoever sent them... 
I
don't know what happened down the way we'd came, but he killed 
SOMETHING,
but came back rather chewed up."

Kanna says, "Eventually the hoarde of Feral Stanleys died down to a
trickle, and we took the time to rest and heal, bonding a bit by
swapping stories."

Beowulf says, "Yeeesh. Didn't let you rest for a moment, did they?" He
reaches across and gives Kanna  quick half-hug.

Kanna hugs back, thankful.  "All part of the life of an Action Heroine,
Bey." She grins.

Beowulf grins back. "Suppose so. Doesn't make it any less painful,
though."

Kanna lets go.  "When we finally got back moving again, turned out there
was a cloning cabinet set up producing the Feral Tweedles.   I guess 
they
just must have built up over hours behind the barrier until we caused it
to drop.  790 was able to shut it off, and we went through where the 
last
few traps had already been triggered by I suppose whoever tried to make
the blockage."

Kanna says, "At which point we reached the doors to Derith's Vaults."

Kanna flips a page in her sketchbook, and shows off the drawing of the
doors, decorated with rebman motifs.

Lian looks at the page, then nods.

Beowulf looks appreciatively at the sketch.

Kanna says, "There were apparently traps in -that-, too, but Lucien had 
a
key in the form of a ring from his father, that let us through."

Beowulf asks, "Did you have any signs that the competition had gotten
through?"

Kanna says, "The rooms beyond... -damn-, bey, it was like that scene at
the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark... crates and stuff as far as the eye
could see, all in a full-atmosphere enclosure, untouched and dusty. 
Nobody
had been there for decades."

Kanna shifts over, and pulls over her stack of inventory notes.  It's... 
a
thick stack.  "Uncle Derith... had quite the interesting collecting
hobby."

Beowulf says, "Huh." He tries unsuccessfuly to look uninterested.

Kanna grins.  "You aint' fooling -anybody-, Beowulf."

Lian eyes the stack of notes. "Looks like it, yes ... so, did he have 
any
interesting stuff?"

Beowulf looks innocently hurt. Or tries to, anyway. "Might be
interesting to compare it to Annadil's stash; didn't have any convenient
inventory for that, unfortunately."

Kanna says, "Well.. lesse... I haven't had a chance to go through
EVERYTHING yet... sis inventoried when we transfered everything over to
Ember's vaults so nobody else can get at it.  Me, sis, mom, and Lucien 
are
the only ones with authorization.  But it's all up here now.  Things of
note... like, oh, complete Diaries of the Elders up to 40 years ago,
printed in someplace called 'Terminus'... Street Maps and Sewer Maps of
Rebma... Arrows of Slaying... Primal Beanie babies..." She ruffles 
through
her notes...

Kanna says, "A Staff of the Magi... an Invulnerable Coat of Arnd... Map 
to
Underwater Base Containing Giant Sea War Machine... Ark of the
Covenant..." She looks up at the two... "300 crates of Rifles, 3,000 
boxes
of Ammunition, and the formula for Amber Gunpowder."

Kanna says, "Oh, and an Abyss Sword."

Kanna says, "Those are just some of the higlights."

Beowulf blinks at the Underwater Base. "Hmmm."

Beowulf asks, "Do you have that information with you?"

Lian whistles. "Derith sure got around ... and do you think Lucien would
be willing to give me a few samples of the Amber gunpowder?"

====
====

The_Prof pages, "As I had a very nasty thought today, if that war
machine *is* Annadil's Battleship..." to you.

====
====

Kanna says, "Not -on- me, but I think I recall from looking over the map
that the Underwater Base was a day's travel from Yig, which is why your
mention of Annadil's machine sent up a red flag."  She quirks a smile at
Lian.  "Well, if he doesn't, both Ruka and I claimed a rifle and some
boxes of ammo for ourselves, just in case..." She goes, and draws
Beryllina... its blade shimmers iridescently before she shifts it to
Pistol form.  She pops it open, and removes a cartridge.  "... and isn't
it -nice- that there were calibers there for Beryllina?"  She grins a 
bit.
 "I wonder if I leave them in the chamber long enough, it'll learn the
ammo type and be able to replicate it."

Kanna says, "Wouldn't hurt to ask, but I think he's keeping the info
close to the chest, and I'm not surprised, as it's a -damn- strong
tactical advantage." She purses her lips.  "I've gotten -tired- of the
tales of Amber and Ember's -3enemies- keep getting their hands on 
working
firearms in Amber kicking our butts."

Kanna replaces the bullet, closes the gun, and shifts it back to Cavalry
Saber before sheathing it.

Beowulf says, "It sent up a red flag for me, too." He frowns. "Annadil 
and
Derith were... taken out of circulation... at about the same time. 
Derith
certianly wouldn't have had time to find it after Annadil was gone, and 
no
longer able to interfere."

Lian nods slightly. "Me too ... if they ever actually get -into- Amber 
...
gun versus sword equals not good odds for us."

Beowulf frowns deeper. "So... *how did Derith know about it*?"

Kanna nods.  "Yeah.  Well, part of my report to mom includes the fact 
that
this entire stuff was stashed."  She shrugs.  "Damned if I know. Perhaps
he explored shadow and stumbled onto it, and encountered Annadil in the
process?"

Kanna says, "IF you're talking about the battleship, that is."

Beowulf sighs. "Well, perhaps I'm thinking too negatively.. but I can't
help wondering if they might have *collaborated* on it."

Lian says, "You -are- thinking too negatively."

Kanna shrugs.  "We might never know.  But think of this: 'He passed the
test of the gate / into that madness he will not fall / but there are 
many
doors / and many staircases which open the way to them'.  From the 
Serpent
Prophesy."

Kanna says, "I mean, Annadil was a mental badass.  And from mom's tales,
she was always wary of Uncle Derith 'cause -he- was a mental badass, 
too. 
But there's different degrees of Badassness."

Beowulf sits silently, face screwed up like he's trying to remember
something.

Kanna says, "I -would- advise you talking with Lucien or one of his
associates about this underwater war machine, though.  His group is
competant, but not quite equipped for dealing with Outsiders, and given
all the gear stashed in Derith's Vaults.. or -was-, until we shipped it
all up here via sis... the rebmaquois would -kill- to get that machine 
or
the guns, or the other stuff.  Lucien's already making plans to go after
the war machine."

Beowulf's face relaxes. But only a little. "As from what I can remember 
of
Annadil's notebooks, I got the distinct impression that he had *help* in
building that battleship."

Kanna mmms.

Kanna says, "Well, on the flip side, there's full naval -houses- of
Chaos down in the Courts, y'know."

Kanna says, "Grab sympethizers who want to smack Amber and Rebma in the
balls, build the thing, kill the builders."

Lian says, "Those would be more likely allies than Derith, really ..."

Beowulf nods. "True. Well, once we track it down, we may be able to
figure it out from the base, or the ship itself."

Beowulf says, "And I agree, we definitely need to track it down."

Beowulf says, "If he's talked to Kozue since you got back, he may know
about it now; I gave her a full briefing."

Kanna nods.  "Dunno if he's talked with Aunt Kozue, but I sent Ruka off
when we got back with my report on things, and the war machine was part 
of
it too.  So, we rested the night there, after eating.  Breakfasted this
next morning, left the vaults, and snuck into Rebma proper through the
sewers."

Beowulf nods.

Kanna says, "If anything, the actual sneak in and out was rather
nonconfrontational, all things considered.  I'm not sure if it was
wether we lucked out, or if we were let in, but given the number of
sewers and secret passages into and out of the city and palace, they
-are- kinda hard to guard them all."

Kanna sits back, looking thoughtful.  "Basically, the bloc's in the
middle of rebuilding the city.  -Lots- of Chaosians down there, along 
with
rebmans."

Beowulf asks, "How many of each, d'you think?"

Kanna says, "We came up with an estimate of about 200,000 people, mostly
just folks who were working there.  Perhaps 40,000 of the rebmans 
looking
like fighter-types.  And 20,000-some Chaosians."

Kanna says, "this... is going to be notfun."

Lian says, "Indeed."

Beowulf growls slightly. "'Just folks'? What could possibly lead them to
kick in with Outsider worshippers like Bloq Rebmaquois?"

Kanna says, "Thing is, I think they're counting on the Dome for
defense... the time gradient is still 1-1 with Amber, and I didn't see
anything -obviously- outsidery down there... they might just not know."

Lian asks, "Not having a choice in the matter?"

Beowulf says, "How so? Rebma was *dead*, from what I heard... everyone
there is someone who chose to come there."

Kanna says, "We didn't try going ground-level and catching and
interrogating... we could have, but we didn't want to take the risk, and
given how much 'noise' we'd made in our way GETTING to Nedra and 
Derith's
old place, eventually I'm sure somebody would've noticed those missing
ambushes."

Kanna says, "It'll probably take them several more months to get the
city defenses prepared so that they can defend even if the dome goes
down... and the dome -is- breachable.  If a concerted effort by mages is
put in at certain key points."

Beowulf nods. "Getting one of the normal workers would be less of a risk
if there were 200,000 folks there, but still something of a risk. Did 
they
look like they were under coersion at all?"

=====
=====

You page, "I couldn't really tell fromt he height we were observing from
the MErchant's guild... did we see anybody on the street-level when we
snuck out and back into the sewer? :)" to Akemi.

Akemi pages, "They didn't look particularly coerced." to you.

=====
=====

Kanna mmms.  "Well, given the height we were observing from, it was
rather hard to tell... but they didn't look particularly coerced, Bey."

Beowulf sighs. "Damn. Hard to look at them as anyone but collaborators.
What did Lucien think of them?"

Kanna says, "So... I don't know.  I just know that if the Bloc finally
tries to make a push against Amber, it -isn't- going to be pleasant with
nearly 60,000 combat-ready folks, though I suppose using the Jewel to 
shut
down Logrus and such may help." She shrugs.

====
====

You page, "I don't think Jeff/Lucien IC gave any opinion during that
session, but extrapolating, what would have been his feelings on the
numbers and populace under the dome?" to Akemi.

====
====

Beowulf nods. "They are definitely not someone to let sit until they can
take you on on their terms."

Kanna says, "Lucien was extremely concerned about Outsider support to
them, and was thinking of looking of ways of dealing with the chaosian
shapeshifters, and heavy magical support for taking down the dome... you
might be able to get some thoughts out of him, he's still up here, I
think, and Kitiara is a pretty decent tactical mind, though she has yet 
to
adjust for true underwater 3-D warfare thinking.  Pirotase is their 
mage,
and I've already described Morrigan."  She quirks a smile.

Beowulf shakes his head. "Drat... how long did they think they'd be up
here? Talking to them is important, but we've let the Serpent's Horn
situation simmer for far too long already; that needs to be handled
*now*."

Kanna says, "My -personal- theory is that the Higher Ups, like
Dolphin/Ynell, generals and mages, and stuff, are possibly fully
corrupted, but hiding it just enough so that the rest get caught up in 
the
Bloc revolutionary fevor to spank the Evil Amberites.  And the Chaosian
support doesn't help matters."  She nods, and sighs.  "I know... 
possibly
a day or so, I think, bey... as even if Lucien was to try and shift all 
of
Derith's loot down to Atlantis, it'd still take a day plus, and he and 
his
girls are still going THROUGH all the stuff to get it fully assesssed."

Kanna says, "The bottom line is I Don't Know." She quirks a smile.
"Collar Lucien or one of the girls and ask to talk with him when we all
get back from spanking Serpent's Horn."

Beowulf nods. "Right. If they're not here, I'll just have to ask you to
give me a lift down to his place, or else ask Gabrielle if she could 
pass
along a trump impression to Aeris."

Beowulf asks, "As right now, we have a Serpent's Horn to deal with." He
looks over at Kanna. "Much of anything else happen?"

Kanna nods.  "I have a trump of him, courtesy of sis, but he generally
doesn't like taking trumps.  Can't say I blame him."  She smiles sadly.
"Other than us getting home, sis working on giving 790 a body, Pirotase
dealing with the knowledge she's possibly a shadow of Asst. Warden
Pirotess, and me and Ruka getting cleaned off, reporting to mom, and me
Patternwalking... nope."

Beowulf says, "Gabrielle is getting 790 a body?" He grins. "My, that
should be interesting."

Lian mutters something about having to get a bigger gun.

Kanna says, "Eh, I give him two days before Lucien gets so teed off at 
him
that he chops him off at the neck with Greyswandir."

Beowulf smiles wryly. "How about tougher armor?"

Kanna says, "Patternblade, Bey."

Kanna says, "But!  Anyway!  That was -my- week."  She grins, looking
wry, and a tad stretched out.  "WEll, measured in Amber-time, anyway."

Beowulf says, "Actually, I was talking to Lian." He blinks. "Although 
I'm
not sure *any* armor could have protected the Dragon Knight from even a
flawed JoJ blast."

Lian shrugs, "It did its job, and protected -me- from that blast."

Beowulf groans. "Speaking of week... damn, yet *another* thing to deal
with. It's about when Grandmother was due back from what I'm guessing 
was
a trip to Hel's world... and if she wasn't back, I was going to organize 
a
rescue team." He sighs. "Too damn many things to deal with."

Lian says, "As usual."

Kanna says, "Ugh.  At least it did, Lian... eta on reparing it?"  She
sighs, looking over at Bey.  "Yup."  She hrums, looking thoughtful.

Beowulf smiles wryly. "As usual, yes."

Lian says, "Not going to repair it, Kanna. It was nice, but it's a bit 
too
big for a lot of things."

=====
=====

Autolyca pages, "Hey there." to you and Akemi.

You page, "Hey there, Jeff... Happy Birthday!" to Akemi and Autolyca.

Akemi pages, "Oh yeah, happy b-day!" to you and Autolyca.

Autolyca pages, "Thanks. :)" to you and Akemi.

You page, "(I shall be dropping off stuff on Sunday, if that's all right
with you. ^_^ )" to Autolyca.

Autolyca pages, "Fine. You coming to the RenFaire?" to you.

You page, "Sounds good for me... :)" to Autolyca.

=====
=====

Kanna awwwws, pouting cutely.  "But it was cool!  It looked neat!  I
liked sketching it!"

Beowulf says, "If you need any working time for what you want to replace
it, Lian, I was going to fasttime for a bit after this anyway; going to
make up a shadow spikard for Lily and for myself."

Lian shakes her head. "I have a few nice power armor designs for future
use when necessary." She grins, "And shadow spikards are useful tools 
...
have fun making them."

Kanna asks, "Brianna's infecting you, Lian.  How long until we see the
Lian Cannon?"

Beowulf raises his eyebrows at that.

Lian says, "That depends on when I get my hands on a flawed jewel or
demijewel."

Kanna says, "Ah, right."

Somewhere on the muck, Shizumaru has connected.

Kanna says, "Hrm.  So." She goes, and drains her coke glass. "So the
next major step is hooking up with the gang down in Chaos and finding 
Big
Daddy Daffyl and his crew to put things right?"

Beowulf nods. "Exactly."

Lian says, "Pretty much, yes."

Kanna hrms, and yawns, and looks a tad sheepish.  "SAdly, I'm not
-quite- ready to tromp off down to the Courts... not without a full
night's sleep after my patternwalk... would it be all right if I camped
out here for a day or so fasttime, bey?"  She quirks a smile.

Beowulf grins back. "Take as long as you like to rest and recuperate; 
same
offer's open to Ruka and anyone else in the group who could use some
fasttime recovery."

Kanna hehs.  "Well, he and I're thinking of fasstime vacationing after 
the
next group of missions, but he had to get back to Aunt Kozue and 
Shalomar,
so he already left."

Lian says, "Is it open to me too? I could use some rest before heading
back home for checking stuff. And potentially visiting Arden."

Kanna smiles.  "Of course, Lian."

Beowulf nods. "Wish we'd got to him first, since he could have rested 
here
and not lost any time reporting back... but anyway." He grins. "You're
more than welcome as well, Lian."

Kanna says, "Oh, wait, that was to Bey, not me... well, hey, if you can
get your snugglefuzzy, I can walk the Pattern later and have it send me 
to
an ideal vacation place for the four of us, Lian." She grins.

Beowulf looks mock-disappointed, but with a touch of real disappointment
behind it. "Awww... you're leaving me all alone."

Lian says, "You know ... we could have that vacation before our next
mission. I'm sure after the League and Rebma you could use some rest ...
and I could use a few weeks at a beach myself."

Kanna reaches over, and pats Beowulf on the cheek.  "Tell you what.
We'll get there, figure out what it's like, and then pull you and Lily
over, all right?" She smiles.

Beowulf shakes his head. "It's tempting... but I don't think I could
vacation knowing the Horn's holding family members captive. Fasttime
rest is prep time for me, nothing more."

Kanna says, "But I -already- just Patternwalked, Lian." She quirks a
grin.  "And I'd rather get the Serpent's Horn out of the way before
that, I think."

Lian pouts cutely. "Aww ... "

Kanna nods.  "That was my general feeling.  They need to be takend down
NOW."

Kanna says, "It'd be hanging over my head over the entire time we were
there." *pause* "Sure, everthing else would be in a vacation spot, 
too...
but there's more... 'immediacy' to this."

Beowulf says, "I'd love to vacation with you folks, and Lily..." He
sighs. "But not until all the immediate business is taken care of."

Kanna says, "We need Uncle Saionji, Michelle, Davros, Merehallow, and 
the
Spikard back.  We need Daffyl to lay off.  We need to smack the 
Serpent's
Horn down into a paste."

Kanna nods.  "That's why I'm saying -after- this quick spate of business
is taken care of, bey." She moves over, and hugs him.  "Rest assured, we
won't abandon you, Bey."

Beowulf smiles. "Thanks."

Beowulf brushes his hands together. "Well. Ready to do the prep thing?"

Lian says, "First sleep, then prep." She pauses. "Though, depending on 
how
things are right now, I might not be coming with you."

Kanna nods.  "I could do the thing of rest and prep and getting more
-Food- and perhaps some incendental reading of books before we head out 
of
the bag..." She pauses.  "... eh?"

Beowulf says, "Well, we'll be coming out a second after we stepped in;
you'll be welcome if you come, but don't worry if you've got other 
things
to do."

====
====

You page, "(translated -- Dunno if player can schedule. *wl*)" to Chris.

Chris pages, "(Well, yes. :)" to you.

====
====

Lian says, "I think there's enough people already ... someone's got to
keep an eye on Amber while you're busy down in Chaos."

Beowulf nods. "Good 'nuff."

Kanna hehs a bit, and nods.  "Yeah.  That's true.  Too many cooks..." 
She
shakse her head.  "Forget not the incedent with the Gaunt Man and the
Zeppelin."

Lian smiles slightly. "Just make sure I don't have to come down to
rescue you."

Kanna says, "Wish you -could- come, but..." She looks fairly wisftul. 
"...
but I can understand the need.  And I'll make sure we won't need to be,
Lian."

Lian reaches out to touch Kanna's arm. "I wish I could come too, but I
have too much to do ... and unless there's Outsiders playing around down
there, there's nothing I could contribute to the effort that someone 
else
can't do just as well or better."

Kanna nods.  "Do you want me to pass on the Knife to you?  I'm torn on
that, as we didn't encounter Outsiders down in Rebma, but Ruka was able 
to
get a lot of milage out of it anyway.  I may loan it to Moriya for the
duration of this, as last -I- checked he was between swords at the
moment."

Kanna says, "Unless you can get lots of studying done into its nature."

Kanna places a hand atop Lian's as her hand touches Kanna's arm.

Lian shakes her head. "Keep it ... I don't have the time to do any
studying at the moment, and if you -do- run into Outsiders, you'll need
it."

Beowulf hmmms. "Well, there's probably some info on it in *here*..." He
gestures around the Library. "You could always check up on it while we
rest."

Kanna says, "Hm, on thought, if there IS outsiders, Moirya would
probably be the best to hold it at the moment -- just what I was
thinking."

Kanna nods.  "Gotcha, you two."

Kanna quirks a smile.  "So... got a good place for two ladies to crash 
for
the night, bey?  The facilities here I admit are nice, but I don't see 
any
-bathrooms-..." She grins.

Beowulf grins. "Well, I've just got a bac