[Notes for the run of December 23, 1999.] In front of us is a fog layer in a stairstep formation (human-sized). We start clambering up. Once we're all on the stairs, the cloud formation itself also starts rising. We soon find ourselves with the mother giant, who asks if we got the ring. We show it to her (it's not as though it was hidden in a pack!), and she puts it on her finger. She thanks us with relief, and says she'll go talk to her husband. We wait in a garden that, unlike the rest of the giant city, is scaled to our size, and is also made of rock instead of clouds. (It's the giant equivalent of a bonsai garden. We suspect perhaps the rock is plastered over a layer of clouds.) We hear some thunder rumbling in the distance as the giants argue. While we wait, Mia tries again to cast her big healing spell on Anton. She does better than before, healing 10 of the 13 damage, but Anton will still suffer some permanent impairment (-2 BODY) from having taken such a large wound. The father giant turns up and, still rumbling a bit, explains that his wife has prevailed upon him to aid us, saying we remind her of Jarvon. He has us stand back from a tree in the middle of the bonsai garden, and the ladies' hair stands on end as he zaps the tree with a lightning bolt. He tells us to take the one piece we're interested in, and Calais deftly bags the most appropriate bit. Anton regretfully eyes all the leftover pieces, which he knows would be potent components for his lightning bolt spell. Anton asks the giant if the giants taught Jarvon to throw lightning bolts. They did. He asks how long ago that was, and the giant says it seems like yesterday. Anton asks if Jarvon learned all his spells from the giants, but is told no, Jarvon also learned from the blue goddess. The giant mentions that Jarvon was going to learn how to make himself immortal. We try to find out whether he succeeded, and what became of him. The giant doesn't know where he is now, but wonders why he hasn't come back to visit them. Mia suggests that perhaps, if he hasn't come back to visit, maybe he's trapped. The giant, in a quieter voice, mentions that Jarvon once did him a great favor, retrieving his wife's wedding ring when he had lost it. We eventually thank him for his hospitality (Alexis isn't entirely sure what's appropriate, but says something suitable for speaking to a foreign potentate), and he offers to put us down in the elf's forest. It starts to rain, and when the rain clears we find ourselves in the forest. We've returned in late morning of the same day that we set out, presumably due to time running backward while we were with the Hanged Man. Our horses are disappointed; they were hoping to spend a long time loafing and feeding on 'way oats'. Llyurylly'yl takes his leave, saying he wants to stay in the forest for next week's festival. Calais offers him one of the cards we got from the orc battle; the elf is surprised -- it's been a while since he got any cards for fighting so few orcs -- but accepts it with thanks. The return to Westmore is uneventful. This time the mounted patrol outside Westmore is at full strength. The total travel time was a week each way. (This is relevant for training issues. Mia/Anton were training up their magic rolls, and Paris was teaching Teaching to Alexis. Calais was teaching armor/dex levels to Rhori. Lucas sits in for one week of magic roll lessons [Steve needs to check with Barry/Sunny to find out if this is enough for a point] and one week of the armor/dex training. After a week learning to teach, Alexis also gets one week of armor/dex lessons.) Alexis starts to head for the armorer to get her armor repaired (preferably before any relatives can see the really big hole in it), but Lucas says he knows a good armorer, so Alexis gives him the armor instead. Lucas does not elaborate. When we report to the Prince and Duke, Silverlocke and Brillig are also present. As usual, Paris begins by summarising what we've accomplished. "My Lord Prince, we have accomplished the goal you tasked me with. Calais, can you bring forward the egg and the wood?" Mia breaks in, "Don't touch them!" Calais brings up the two sacks. Paris then asks Anton to fill in the details. Having had a week to consider how to tell the tale, Anton does a credible job, and the Prince and the Duke are both impressed. The Duke drones on oratically about the wonderful things we've done, thanks us, and opens his box to give us our reward: 21 cards. (As has become the party's custom, Calais accepts the cards for everyone, and then, lacking any real math skills beyond what a shepherd might know, spends some time -- either unobtrusively while standing with the party, or immediately after leaving court -- quietly sorting through them, muttering the names of the party. After he has muttered each name three times, he finds himself at the end of the stack of cards, and concludes "three apiece". Then he puts them carefully away. Alexis, surprised at seeing Calais get all the cards, asks for hers (presumably after court), and Calais readily hands her three, then adds, "And you should get two of the ones from this latest journey, too," and gives her a total of five. Calais then looks around to the others, especially Paris (who often keeps her own cards) and Lucas (for whom Calais has no past, um, experience, so to speak) and asks, "Does anybody else want to carry their own share, or should I hold onto them as usual?" Meanwhile, back in court...) The Duke suggests that Calais work with Irolo to select a suitable place in the palace to store the items, but adds that as he understands such matters, one of us will have to guard the items at all times. (The items must remain with the party at all times, or they'll lose their significance.) We'll have to set up a rotation for it. Alexis tells Calais to make sure he includes a bed in the room. The Prince suggests that Paris be excused from this guard duty since this is the last week of preparation for the tourney and other tests of knighthood. Anton asks about taking the items to the King, and the Prince and Duke exchange a significant look and then explain that it will probably be a while. With the winter coming on, the armies will be standing down, etc., so it might be some time before we go traveling. Alexis notes from their tone that perhaps they are deliberately saying things for the benefit of the assembled listeners. They do tell us to remain available, though. (In particular, Rhori asks Silverlocke about helping to scout the forces near Fort Carcassone, but once out of the audience Silv says no.) We see Raymond, and Mia asks if he got the spells combined. He thinks so, but it means he has to stay close to Silverlocke, and it ties up two spell slots. He's getting really good at casting them, since he has to recast both spells every time Silverlocke leaves or enters the palace. Rhori asks Calais about getting a wagon for carting Hobbes around in. Calais figures he can cobble something together; he rigs up a wagon with a tarpaulin to cover the sleeping lion, and wisps of hay artfully attached to the tarp to make it look like that's what's underneath. Anton also wants to get his armor fixed -- replacement armor is getting harder to come by as supplies get used for the army -- so Lucas takes Anton's armor as well. Rhori wants heavier armor than he now has, but Lucas says he can't provide new armor, only fix broken armor. We suggest Rhori talk to Silverlocke about it. The week passes uneventfully; we get to spend time with our various NPCs, and whatever training we can arrange. (The guard duty doesn't appreciably cut into our training.) Eventually comes the night of the ball. [This was mostly run offline, so I have few notes.] Anton is present as one of the musicians. Alexis chats with him briefly after he returns, somewhat downcast, from a brief sojourn in the garden during a break. Anton doesn't see Paris there -- or rather, doesn't recognise her. She doesn't look a bit like Calais that night. When we come to escort her back at the end of the evening (being wary still of Ravens and the Black Church), Calais feels that it's a wonderful night, a lovely moon, etc., apparently picking up a feeling of euphoria through their emotional link. The first and third kingdom heavy cavalry have come to Westmore to winter, so we anticipate a very safe festival. Alexis, with skill at betting, looks into the odds being offered on the tournament. Among the peasants, Jules Chivar is 3 to 2 overall, Ewen deLacey is 2 to 1 overall; few people have even heard of Paris. There are also odds for the individual parts of the tournament: scholastic, jousting, and foot combat. Odds on Paris -- or anybody else who's basically unknown -- are 5 to 1. It's hard to find anybody to take bets of more than a silver or so without going to the nobles, who would presumably offer narrower odds since they know about Paris. Anton and Alexis bet half a silver on Paris for the foot combat and half a silver for overall. The jousting goes well. In the races she rides, Paris is bested only by Jules (who we'd found was the favorite in the betting), though she may or may not have scored highest across all the jousting. The jousting results, and the scholastic, will be posted the next day during the foot combat. In the foot combat, Paris's first opponent is wearing three separate favors. (Paris wears none.) He swings wildly and misses; Paris gets in a solid hit in the chest, and the judge declares her the winner. Mia cheers wildly. Her next opponent also swings and misses, and Paris hits him in a delicate location. Despite the heavy armor all the contestants are wearing, he doubles over and is carried off the field. Mia asks, "Is that legal?" Midway through the foot tourney, Alexis comes stomping down from the noble seats and joins us in the common area. She's clearly upset, but says she doesn't want to talk about it right now. She occupies herself with giving us a running commentary about who's who, etc. Around the time of the second bout (or perhaps, about the time of the second round?), the three-favor guy (whom Alexis identifies as Lord Rupert Ravun) tries to charge Jules. Some guards restrain him, but he breaks free and heads toward where Jules and Paris are talking. Sir Gryphon disarms him and knocks him down, and Rupert is hauled off the field. We wave Paris over to ask what it was about, and she explains that the fellow lost his temper over something Jules said. We prod for details. Jules said to him, "Beaten by a girl?" Paris's third opponent is more competent, and salutes her after she wins. As expected, the results of the earlier competitions are posted partway through the morning. In the scholastics, the winner was the favorite, Rodric Givance (son of the earl of Eastgate, to whom Paris spoke when we were there), second Ewen deLacey, third someone or other; Paris did not place, but did pass. In the jousting, Jules was first as expected. Paris did surprisingly well, finishing second with the same total points but fewer victories. Ewen was a distant third. Paris's next to last combat is vs Rodric, while Jules faces Ewen. It's her longest fight so far; Rodric seems to know all her moves. He tries to distract her by calling over her shoulder as though to Sir Gryphon (a trick his father used on her when they had a practice bout in Eastgate), but she doesn't fall for it from Rodric. Indeed, since he had to put himself slightly out of position to attempt the pretense, she takes the opportunity to tag him. He bows to her, she bows, and he leaps forward and hugs her. They then turn to watch the other bout. Jules is wearing a blue silk favor (Alexis guesses it's from Lorraine); Ewen wears none. Finally, Ewen comes out the winner. During a break before the final battle, Sir Gryphon explains to Paris and Ewen that he doesn't know who will win, but he does know exactly how well each of them can fight, and if he sees either of them pull a blow or give anything other than their best effort, he will kick both their asses off the field. The Prince, Princess, and Duke, who weren't present for the earlier bouts, come out for the final contest. Also brought out is the warhorse being offered as the prize to the overall winner. The noble young ladies start chanting, "Paris! Paris! Paris!" Lady duGryphon starts to turn sternly to them, but Lord duGryphon stops her, beaming broadly. After a bit, the men in the class start cheering for Ewen. One lone lady also cheers for Ewen, but her voice is mostly lost in the hoopla. The final round, unlike the earlier ones, is two out of three. The bout begins. Both fighters delay, but finally Ewen cannot resist the cheers from the stands and he swings, but misses. Paris swings back, and also misses. On segment three, Paris delays. On four, Ewen swings and misses again. Paris swings and misses. Segment six, Paris delays. Segment eight, Ewen misses. Paris swings, hitting in the chest for 8 and 24. The requisite stun points get through; round one to Paris. After a brief break, they start again. This time Paris gives in and swings first, and misses. Ewen hits an 11, which hits, but he's not as strong as Paris and no damage gets through. Segment three, Paris delays. Segment four, Ewen also holds. Segment five at DEX zero, Paris goes ahead and swings, hitting, but he blocks. She takes a small chunk from his shield. Segment six, with his shield out of the way, she swings again, forcing him to block again, aborting his eight. A bigger chunk of shield. Segment nine, Ewen aborts to dodge. Paris swings and misses. Segment twelve, Ewen, still dodging, recovers his shield before Paris can swing again. Paris is tempted to take the opportunity to catch her breath, but remembers Lord duGryphon's warning and continues her offensive. Ewen is far too hard to hit when he goes completely defensive, though, and she fails to connect. Segment three, Paris waits for Ewen to stop dodging and commit himself. Segment four, Ewen switches to all offense and lunges forward (probably pushing his strength, too), and hits. Paris fails to block, and takes 8 and 24. Round two to Ewen. Final round. Ewen swings first, barely hitting. Paris blocks with her sword. Segment three, Paris holds. Ewen swings, hitting amazingly well. (Hit a 17, crit a 13.) Paris blocks. The crowd goes wild. Segment six, Paris hits a 17, crits a 12. But Ewen aborts to dodging, and she barely misses. Segment nine, Paris figures there's no reason to spend the endurance trying to roll a 4, so she waits. Segment twelve, he goes all-offense again, and forces Paris to block, which she does. Segment three, Ewen isn't dodging for the moment, and his levels are on offense, so Paris tries a swing, but misses. Segment four, he swings but misses. Segment six, Paris holds. Segment eight, Ewen swings, missing badly. Paris returns the swing, but misses. Segment nine, she swings but again misses. He does not try to dodge. Segment twelve, he swings and hits, and Paris fails to block, but the blow glances off her arm. Segment three, Paris swings again, this time forcing Ewen to abort his four to block -- well, to try to block. She hits in the chest, for 5 and 15, which isn't enough damage. His shield is now out of place, so in six he aborts his eight to dodge, but Paris still hits, in the stomach, for 6 and 24. Match to Paris. Ewen picks himself up and removes his helm; Paris follows suit. There are some startled gasps as some of the peasant spectators discover that Paris is a woman. Ewen says quietly, "Here, lion lion lion." This apparently means something to Paris, and there are cheers from the women in the stands (well, probably all but one), and wolf whistles from the men, as the two erstwhile combatants kiss. Sir Gryphon is beaming ear to ear. The Prince and Duke congratulate Paris, and present her with the warhorse. She will be the first to be knighted; her vigil will be tonight. As this and other details are being discussed, some riders come in. One, in the colors of Fort Carcassone, looks terrible. He hands over a package. "My liege. This arrived at the fort...yesterday?" The package is opened, and the Prince, Duke, and Silverlocke look in and go pale. The Princess gasps. Alexis looks and sees a man's severed finger with a signet ring bearing a brilliant green stone. She recognises it as the King's signet. The Prince tells the commanders of the First and Third cavalries, "The schedule has moved up. Assemble your troops at the south gate in the hour." To Paris, he says, "I will need you, your compatriots, and the items." Paris leaves immediately to assemble her comrades in adventure. The Prince turns to Silverlocke and says, "Baron, you are with me. Horses!" As they ride off, one of the cavalry commanders announces, "Pelier has fallen." The Prince and Silverlocke go to Pierre's dwelling and ring the equivalent of the doorbell. Pierre looks outside and tells Claire, "It's that nice Silverlocke fellow. Who's the person with him?" Claire explains it's the Prince, and they let the two in. To make a long story short, they want to know if they can use the lava track vehicle to move four or five thousand troops past the expected orc forces near Fort Carcassone. Pierre believes the vehicle will do the job, but asks if he can request two things in exchange. One of them pertains to the statue the party once remarked upon. He explains it's something up in the hills, and that when he was up there it somehow confused him and caused him to kill his brother. The Prince starts to say he'll offer a 100 gold piece reward for its death, but Pierre says no, he doesn't want anyone else to die to it; he wants the Prince to see that nobody else goes after it unless it's a group good enough to be sure of doing the job. And the second thing? "Excuse me a second, your Highness. Claire, will you marry me?" Getting assent, he tells the Prince, "I'd like her to have whatever kind of wedding she would like." The Prince is rarely caught so flatfooted, but eventually stammers out that it will not be a problem, and offers the pair his congratulations. The entire rainbow church (except one fellow who's missing a leg) tries to volunteer for the army, but the Prince says half of them must stay behind; he doesn't want to risk losing the whole church. Henri, as leader of the church, must stay. Although interrupted by a kiss, Henri asks Mia to come back -- and marry him. Various others, such as eldest sons, are also not allowed to sign up. Alexis gets permission from the Duke to go along. Alexis also manages to find time in the allotted hour to go collect her and Anton's winnings from betting on the tourney. The Prince does tell the Duke and Princess that, should he not return, they have his blessing. Brillig suggests to Claire that, after dropping off the load of troops, they should continue on to Dungeon and fetch some of the monks from there. There's a bit of an altercation in one group of volunteers as Brillig and various other well-placed men simultaneously grab a bunch of Ravens and/or Black Church members who had hoped to infiltrate the army. Apparently all the bad guys who had been identified so far were assigned to a single platoon for ease of capture. Brillig was assigned to snag someone they think can give them a good lead on the teleporting bad guy, and manages to knock the guy out before he can get away. Brillig is assigned to oversee the questioning and any followup work, as Silverlocke is going with the army. The remaining five thousand troops and horses clamber in. We head off, expecting to go two hops to get to the Tomb of the Lost King near Pelier. There's an unexpected clunk, and Pierre, with a worried look, reports that there's a second node here. The vehicle is straddling the nodes, and being on two nodes has used up its allotment of three nodes for the day. The vehicle opens, and we find that we're on the surface, not underground. The third cavalry rides out and we hear fighting; they soon return and report they've dispatched a few hundred orcs. Pierre and Claire look and see indeed there are two nodes of earth currents here. Anton tries magic sight, and sees two air currents converging as well. Mia likewise sees lots of power converging, much like when we met Murphy. We go to investigate the Tomb. Paris draws her sword and it indicates some nascent evil everywhere around. There's one small square area that's not evil, but we don't find anything there. Mia thinks about drawing a circle of protection. This leads her to recall Henri telling her about a dream in which Mia was in a circle with another woman. The circle kept getting smaller and smaller and Mia edventually got dragged out of it. He had the dream three times; the third time Mia wasn't in the circle. The woman had an unmarked shield that was sort of shiny, which matches the description of Paris. (Henri has never actually met Paris.) We go back over what we know about the tomb. Paris again recites the story of the Queen who took over for the mortally wounded King and finished the war in his stead, and who when she finally stepped down as ruler was granted a sword to replace the sword of state she was giving up. Paris also remembers that, last time we were here, she thought the tomb would be a good place for a Vigil. We go out and report to the Prince. The Prince checks who has the two items (Calais, of course), and tells us to stay close, as Silverlocke and rides ahead with the Third Cavalry to scout. Rhori chafes at being left behind, but his link via Hobbes to Rex lets him keep the Prince posted on what's up ahead. He passes along that they've found an interesting wagon train and they think someone should look it over when we get there. It was guarded by a hundred orcs. Two thousand heavy horsemen unguarded it. :-) When we reach the spot, we find some human priests in chains in the wagons, along with accoutrement from the White Church in Pelier. Mia looks for the Rainbow Church items, but they're not there. It appears the wagon train was headed for the tomb. The priests have been badly treated. There are thirteen priests; they say there were more, but the others were killed. We guess perhaps there was a ritual to be performed there tonight that required sacrificing thirteen white-church priests. The priests tell a bit about how Pelier was taken. The opposing army used magic to blow down part of the outer wall a few nights ago, and attacked Pelier from the northwest. They also used magic to get into the palace proper at the top of the mount. They describe the earth shaking, and great gouts of fire. The priests were taken out through the south gate; they heard sounds of fighting to the east and had to make a wide circle around the big fortress at the East Gate. They think that a lot of the younger priests were in that fortress before the fight. The priests we've rescued are all fairly old men. Rex reports they ran into a larger group of orcs, and are headed back. Word also comes from Fort Carcassone saying the orcs are headed our way, all twenty thousand of them. Claire and Pierre start looking at what sort of earthworks defenses they can put up to bolster the wooden fence around the tomb area. We explain to the Prince that we think something important is going to happen at the tomb, so retreating is not a good option. He has us elaborate, and we tell him about the nascent evil, etc. We ponder our knowledge of Tarot, noting that Death is the thirteenth card. No obvious revelations. Death is the one who takes everybody in the end. Back at the Tomb, we see orcs in the distance coming from all directions. They must have already been headed this way, i.e. not in response to our arrival; more evidence that something big was already in the works. Our plan is for Paris to stand her vigil in the indicated spot, with one of Mia's circles around her. Mia will have to stand in the open door of the vehicle to maintain the spell. Archers will attempt to keep the orcs at a distance. As we wait, Alexis asks Lucas who fixed her armor and Anton's. He explains that his sister did it; she's good at that. The holding action seems to be working well. The full moon provides plenty of light for the archers. The first sign of trouble is when somebody points out to the Prince that something has bitten one edge out of the moon. The light continues to diminish, and the orcs start to press forward. Mages cast light spells, but it's not a lot of light. The Prince orders everyone to the walls save Calais and Mia, those guarding Mia, and a few runners. As the moon goes completely dark, the priests start to realise that their clerical spells are losing charges. Mia hastily casts her Bless spell to get it into use. After all the charges are gone, the spells start to lose other features: persistent spells become non-persistent; spells that used to cost half or no endurance start to cost full endurance, then double endurance, and so on. She drops everything but the circle of protection. We consider giving her some cards to increase her endurance or recovery, but she can't consume a card without losing her concentration on the circle. Calais feels scared. He's not sure if that's his feelings or Paris's, but he's pretty sure the cold feeling in one arm is from Paris. He tries to rally his own nerve in case that might help bolster Paris somehow. Lucas tries to go down the steps to the tomb, but finds an invisible barrier blocking entry. We're pretty sure that midnight has come and gone, but the mages realise that their batteries have not recharged. Spell charges have also not replenished, which means we won't be using the lava track vehicle to escape. Finally, Mia starts burning STUN to maintain the protection spell, but as the endurance costs get too high she cries out in pain and blacks out for a moment. When she recovers her senses, she can tell the circle is gone. The Prince sees that the north wall has been set on fire. That's a signal from the defenders there that the walls have become untenable. He orders the rest of the walls be fired as a final delaying action while the troops fall back, mount up, and prepare to charge out. Calais doesn't feel Paris any more. Lucas sees a light approaching from inside the tomb. Meanwhile, inside, Paris was praying. She realises she feels cold; her breath is steaming. The moisture from her breath is condensing in the room, causing it to be lit by a cold white light. Looking up, she sees the room is full of wraiths. The wraiths back away, as a seemingly more solid figure approaches. The wraiths bow to it. Coming toward Paris is a large figure, its mouth gaping as though in a perpetual scream. (Picture the painting "The Scream", by Edvard Munch.) Unlike the wraiths, this figure extends all the way to the floor. It stops outside the circle and says, "Oh, succulent flesh! Who has left this morsel for me? Who has left this morsel for The Dread?" Paris cannot reply at first; she is frozen in terror as well as from the cold. She takes a moment to knock the ice off her armor, then replies, "I chose to be here." "Then come to me." "No, I chose to be _here_." "You _oppose_ The Dread?" Paris notes that the Dread is evil, but the wraiths are not. The Dread gestures, and the wraiths are evil too. They press in on the rainbow circle, and it begins to shrink. "Your petty spells will not stop _me_," it says, and steps into the circle, reaching out to touch her. She tries to block, but his hand passes through her shield and touches her arm, draining some of her life force. "Ohhh, _virgin_ flesh," it drools.