[Notes for the run of December 30, 1999.]

The leaders try to decide which direction to try to break out in.  They
arrange for there to be a pocket in the center for people who aren't good at
fighting on horseback, like Pierre and Claire.  Calais is also in the
pocket, since he has the special items.  They suggest that Alexis stay in
the pocket, but she declines.

Since we'll be abandoning the lava track vehicle, Pierre takes some things
out of it, including some bits needed to make it operate.

Mia is still a little bit dazed.  It turns out [once Sunny arrives] this is
because she had another meeting with one of the rainbow gods while she was
passed out.  She met someone dressed in red, who said, "Chronos said we
would meet twice tonight.  I'm glad you understood my warning."  Mia asks,
"Warning?"  "Not to stand in the circle."  The red god goes on, "He may
wield any weapon he chooses, even if it is not meant for him.  Tonight he
chooses light and dark."  Mia asks, "Twice?"  "We will meet again tonight."
As the figure fades, it smiles and adds, "At least he doesn't have the armor
he wanted."

Meanwhile, inside the tomb, the Knight alone is trying to figure out how she
can possibly keep The Dread from the Queen of Swords.  As it touches her
through her shield, she hears her shield give off a shrill noise from the
cold.  The Dread backs out of the circle.  His right hand is now just a
ghostly red outline.  The white of the rest of his body starts to fill it
back in, as he hisses, "Hateful iron! Take it off!"  Paris panics (under a
57 point presence attack) and starts to flee, but she feels Calais giving
her strength and manages to bring herself under control before running out
of the circle into the waiting wraiths.

She senses the Dread has again entered the circle and come up behind her.
She dodges and avoids its touch.  The Dread is now in the center of the
circle, which continues to shrink as the wraiths press upon it.

Paris swings her sword through its body.  The sword screams from the cold,
like her shield did earlier.  There is no resistance, but the sword leaves
behind a red gash.  There is a cracking sound as the sword loses some of
_its_ body points.  The Dread screeches and swings at Paris, draining more
life force.  Her leather armor there (on her sword arm) also blackens and
decays.

Paris switches her levels to defense, and slashes it again.  Her sword again
screams, and the Dread squeals and steps back out of the circle.  It spends
a moment pushing some of itself back into the gashed areas, during which
Paris considers knocking the accumulated ice off her helm, but she decides
instead to wait for it to make another move.  It comes back in and takes
another swing, missing, and Paris slashes it through both shoulders.  The
sword shatters, and the Dread retreats once more, cursing the iron, and
pushes more of itself in to fill the new gaps.  Paris takes the opportunity
to pull out her beaked hammer.

He comes back in, and they both swing.  He misses, Paris hits, the hammer
whines.  The circle is now very small, but Paris is back in the center.  The
Dread looks over Paris's left shoulder and screams, "Nooooo!"  Having
recently -- was it really just this morning? -- resisted this sort of trick,
Paris steadfastly does not look, and hits it again, as it barely misses.
The hammerhead shatters, leaving Paris holding the wooden haft.  The Dread
is staggering, trying to find more white stuff to repair itself with.
Paris, holding no other handy iron, tries a shield bash.  The shield presses
into it, and the Dread completely shatters; the shield screeches but
survives.  Paris's arm presses into the Dread as well, and most of her
remaining life drains away, leaving her just barely alive.

Paris uses the handle of her hammer to finally knock the ice off her helm.
As she does so, the rainbow light around her fades away.  In her weakened
state, the wraiths look almost solid to her.  Before they can attack,
though, she hears the sound of stone on stone over her shoulder.  This time
she does look behind her.  The fifty-foot statue of the queen is looking at
her.  Paris freezes again.  The statue says, "We are here.  Why has Queen
Branwen been called?"

Somewhere in the back of Paris's mind, she hears Lady Gryphon saying, "One
knee."  She manages to kneel, presents her stick, and blithers "Uhhhhhhhhh."
Finally, she manages to stammer out, "Tara is in danger, and we are seeking
to save it."  "My nation?  In danger?  Go, rally those living.  We will
follow."

Paris acknowledges the order, and stands to go.  She notices that the
wraiths are gone.  As she starts to leave, the statue says, "Hold.  What is
your name, soldier?"  Paris kneels again, presents her stick, and says,
"Paris, your Majesty."  "Paris, where is your sword?"  "It shattered in The
Dread, Majesty."  The statue humphs, and goes to the sarcophagus.  "Soldiers
will not follow a stick, Paris.  This I have learned."  It opens the
sarcophagus, creating some sort of vacuum that sucks the ice from around the
room.  Half of it sticks to the statue, which starts to glow, the rest goes
into the sarcophagus.  "A soldier needs a sword, Paris.  Here, use mine."

Paris looks inside and sees various items amidst the dust that was once
Queen Branwen.  There is a gold chalice, set with emeralds.  The gold
circlet she once wore has fine wires through it that held it in place in her
hair; now, it looks a lot like Claire's pentacle.  There is a small gold rod
of state carved to resemble a wand, with a brilliant cut diamond on top.
There's lots of other gems and jewelry, including a necklace with a ruby the
size of her fist.  And there's a very plain bastard sword.  She ignores the
treasure (despite Calais's instinctive empathic urging :-) and picks up the
sword, noting that it bears the names of all the nobles who voted to let
Branwen carry this sword.  Paris hears a little girl singing as the sword
starts to glow.  The light extends down the blade, and she realises the song
is within her; more voices join in, building to a heavenly choir.  The sword
is glowing white, as is her badge, and there is a glowing white curtain
around her.  Paris knows somehow that this sword will protect her against
minor magics, it will help her fight the Fell and the Dark, and it cannot be
used against another of her Order.  Once a week it can be used to stop any
mortal spell.  The Queen speaks.  "NOW you can inspire them.  Go."

Paris comes out of the tomb, carrying the still-glowing sword.  It being the
only source of light other than the fire on the walls, everyone turns to
look.  Three of the no-range-mod magic missiles come at Paris, but dissipate
against the curtain of light.  Paris says simply, "Queen Branwen will be
bringing us aid."  Prince William thinks he must have mis-heard.  "Who?"
Whatever reply Paris might make goes unnoticed as the statue steps out
behind her and strides north.

The Prince recovers first, and says, "West."  Alexis recovers next, and in
her best heraldic tones relays the Prince's order: "West!"  The other
commanders look at the Prince and say, "West, my liege?"  (That's toward
Pelier, which is not a good route for escape.)  He confirms the order.  To
the north, Branwen's statue tramples some orcs, and uses her 15-foot granite
sword to slice a giant who comes almost to her waist.  She points her sword
at the still-darkened moon and asks, "Where are those who said they would
answer my call?"  The moon starts to appear.  One of the earth nodes
disappears, and the other sinks into the ground, taking the lava track
vehicle with it.  Pierre and Claire dive for it and manage to get inside,
still carrying the bits needed to make it operate again.  A pulsing white
light shines down from the moon, and we all feel changed somehow.

Branwen continues, "Why do you sleep when your nation still needs you?"
(Note: This differs slightly from the Lament spoken at Lady Chivar's eulogy;
there the Prince said "country".  She also added the "still".)  The ground
begins to ripple.  "Were your words so much stronger than your arms?"  The
first of the dead come up from the ground.  Since this is where the military
have buried their dead for the past thousand years, there will probably be
rather a lot of them, including many very good soldiers, and a heck of a lot
of peasants.

The Prince organises the living forces in an open order, so that successive
ranks can react to things that aren't killed by the first rank.  He puts
Paris and the sword in the center, himself to her left, and Silverlocke to
her right.  Silverlocke raises an eyebrow at the Prince regarding this
arrangement, and the Prince remarks, "My father always told me, there are
times to command, and there are times to lead."

One of the commanders asks how far they will ride.  The Prince says the plan
is to ride out, do enough damage to cause the army to fall back for a day,
then retreat and escape the next day in the lava track vehicle.  Silver-
locke, who has been studying the numerous dead rising from the graves,
replies, "See you in the throne room, William."

Hobbes tells Rhori that the place is starting to smell bad.  He thinks the
horses will panic soon.  Calais remarks that there's nothing to be done
about that except to get them pointed in the right direction first.  Rhori
starts to tell the Prince, but Silverlocke is already doing so, and the
Prince gets things going.  As Queen Branwen concludes the Lament -- "Why do
you sleep when I still need you?" -- the four thousand gathered horsemen let
out a roar and head through the break in the fence.  As we clear the wall of
smoke marking where the fence had been, we see that even the soldiers who
died earlier this night have risen to resume their fight against the orcs.

We break through the orcs immediately next to the tomb, and approach the
next orc unit.  Some of us look down at our horses to see how they're doing,
and are surprised to see they're not laboring.  In fact, they look like
they're not even breathing.  As we try to exclaim about this, we find we
have no breath to speak with.  If we choose to, we can still take in a
breath and speak, but we're not breathing unless we want to.  We're also not
getting tired, and are feeling no pain from the occasional blows.  Those of
us who've been wounded are not even bleeding.  We wonder if this means that
we too are all dead.

Half of the next orc unit breaks before the troops even arrive with a great
crash.  The front line hits the orcs and continues past, letting the next
line and the next and next fill in.  The ride becomes a monotony of holding
on to the horses and swinging at anything still standing.  Sometimes, they
swing back; and there are an awful lot of them.  Those of us not in the
pocket are taking an occasional wound, but we fail no pain or fatigue and
simply continue to ride.

Halfway to Pelier we look around again.  The living horsemen, being on the
road, are traveling faster than the rest.  They form the front of a vee,
with an army of skeletal riders on spectral horses forming the flanks,
extending as far as we can see to each side of the road.  Behind them, an
enormous column of skeleton warriors is running, some stopping to finish off
any straggling orcs.  In front of the lead horses are orcs running for their
lives.  The panicked orcs run as fast as they can, panicking the next unit
in line; when the orcs fall from exhaustion, the horsemen catch them and cut
them down.  As this process repeats with each new unit of orcs, the bands of
orcs form a sort of wave front that compresses as we approach the city
walls.

We pull up outside the East Gate fortress of Pelier, which is still held by
the King's men.  The orcs have placed barricades to prevent charges from
Eastgate outward, but these do nothing against an attack from behind.
Still, it takes time to get the horses through the traps.  Once through, we
see the running orcs trying to scale the walls outside of bowshot from the
fortress.  They're climbing on top of each other, forming two great ramps,
trying to get up the wall, as the undead armies pursue them.  Soon there is
fighting on the ramps of dead orcs, and skeletons as well join the piles.
The first orcs reach the top of the wall, followed immediately by the undead
horsemen.

We can't catch what the Prince shouts up to the people in the fortress
(well, Paris presumably heard it, but of course she'll never tell us :-),
but he finally convinces the Earl of Eastgate to open the gates.  As the
Earl is warning the Prince about the orc barricades on the city side, a
shadow passes over us, blocking the now-bright moonlight.  The ground shakes
as Queen Branwen passes by at a full run, carefully avoiding stepping on any
soldiers.  The Earl looks up open-mouthed as the fifty foot statue vaults
over the fortress, a hand on one of the towers for support.  With an
enormous crash she lands on the other side, four buildings nearby collapsing
into rubble.  With another roar, the troop enters the gate.  The party
remembers the Hanged Man's words, as we simply ride our horses into Pelier.

The fighting in the streets is more intense than outside, since the orcs
have almost nowhere to run.  The point of the vee narrows as we move up the
main street, the Prince, Paris, and Silverlocke still at its point, right
behind the Queen as she advances up the hill.  There are more orcs to fight,
and arrows coming at us from somewhere.  As we move, the Prince shouts other
orders, and some of the horsemen begin to fan out, attacking more of the
city to drive the orcs back further and guard our flanks.  The vee broadens
to include more of the city.  The pocket is no longer as protected; we hear
rather than feel blows landing on us as we ride forward, and strike back at
some uncounted number of opponents.

As Branwen reaches the palace wall, three streamers of light streak down at
her from the top of the central tower.  The ground reaches up and encases
her left foot in a mound, while a lightning bolt hits her leg above it, and
an intense fireball hits her right leg, leaving dark spots in our night
vision.  The Queen falls, but as she does so she throws her sword.  It arcs
through the air toward the source of the spells.  There is an explosion as
oil and other materials stored there for the catapults all ignite.  There
are lesser flashes of magic defenses flaring and failing.  The awful sound
of stones falling and crushing those below in the palace is drowned out by
the sound of Branwen crashing to the side of the gate, her legs cut out from
beneath her.

She lays on her right side next to the gate, her arm having collapsed the
palace wall.  The magical horsemen are already riding up her side and
fighting along the top of the wall.  Branwen balls her left hand into a fist
and rams it through the closed gates of the palace, pulling it and all of
the gates out again.  The front line charges into the small courtyard, with
the pocket close behind.

Inside the courtyard is chaos.  Traditionally a killing ground for the
defenders, the undead warriors on the walls have turned the fight from an
ambush into a free-for-all.  There's a knot of orcs and ogres around the
lead element, and a few break through to where Silverlocke's elven friend,
one of the Kelly, has been firing steadily with his bow.  Both the elf and
his white elven horse go down under a barrage of blows.

We press the fight forward, but our progress seems painfully slow.  The
great palace doors start to close before our lead fighters can reach them.
But the defenders have cut their timing too fine; suddenly there are two
lions in their midst, howling and clawing until Silverlocke, followed by
Paris and Prince William, make it to the doors to keep them open.  Glancing
back as we enter, we see vague red glows of the city on fire, contending
with the beginning of the false dawn in the east.  If we remember to breathe
in, we can smell smoke.

More of the troops, under junior commanders, fan out to seize the rest of
the palace while the elite core abandons their horses and hurries up the
stairs to the throne room.  The throne room doors are barred, but a statue
of the King from the hallway looks like it will make a good battering ram.
There's a short confab among the Prince, Silverlocke, and other ranking
nobles present.  Silverlocke points out to William, "You will be their
target."  The Prince says we have to try to save the King, and they're not
going to make it easy.  The King, Queen, and Crown Prince Louis are probably
all inside.

William puts his sword away and says he'll try to talk to them first, and
puts all the forces under the command of Silverlocke, so we're to look to
him for the order to attack.  Alexis offers to "do her job", finding out if
the bad guys are willing to talk.  The Prince thanks her for her brave
offer, but declines the aid.  Calais checks that the items are ready at
hand, and asks where he should be.  The Prince says we need to try to get
them to the King if we can.

Some soldiers take the battering ram.  Rhori wants to help with that, but
Silverlocke tells him to provide shield cover for the Prince.  With a
one-two-three, the doors smash open.  We see three ranks of studly looking
ogres in plate mail, the ogre equivalent of the orcish "uruk-hai", about
halfway down the room.  On the dais at the rear, we see the King, bruised
and bloodied, being held up by the companionable arm of a man who looks to
be in the prime of life, with an intense gaze in his eyes: The Charioteer.

The Crown Prince is indeed there as well, bound, and also looking rather the
worse for wear.  In the middle of the floor is a platter with a woman's head
on it.  The Charioteer speaks.  "Welcome, young prince.  I'm glad you could
make it.  I thought you'd like your mother's head.  She's let the rest of
her go to the dogs."  The ogre-hai chortle (as evil underlings are wont to
do when their overlord makes a weak jest).

The Prince enters, but Silverlocke signals the rest of us to hold back.  In
a clear voice, William orders, "Release him.  You have no hope."  Behind the
shield, we can see the Prince giving strange hand signals that we don't
understand, but apparently Silverlocke does.  "Why is he stalling?" he
mutters, as he quietly adjusts the disposition of the force.

"Rhori," says Hobbes, "Rex says to be very very quiet.  There's a bunch of
ar... arrr.... guys with bows, on the balconies.  Rex's companion wants me
to get up on the left balcony, and when he says to go, he wants you to go
running in and draw fire, but try not to get hit."  Rhori tries to sort this
out, as Silverlocke also warns us all in a more conventional manner that we
should position our shields to cover against the archers.  Anton, who
despite being in the pocket has taken so many wounds that we're surprised
he's still standing (he's at negative body points), starts casting his
protection from missiles spell.  (Endurance batteries did not replenish, and
clerical spell charges are all gone, but mages whose batteries were not
exhausted are still able to cast spells.)

Over the quiet whispers of orders passing among the troops, we can still
hear the Prince and Charioteer inside the room.  "Well, let's not delay the
ceremony any longer," says the Charioteer with a smirk.  "I think you'll
agree that when someone has lost so many fingers and thumbs that they can’t
wield the Sword of State, that they ought to pass it on?  Come on, old man,"
and he gives the King a jerk, "let’s hear the speech I taught you."

"My sons, my soldiers," says the old man, weakly but clearly.  "There comes
a time..."  He pauses, catching his breath and looking around the room
through weak and reddened eyes.  He continues, "...when the old must pass on
to the new.  I tell you now, my sons and loyal soldiers -- to FIGHT!"  And
with the last he tosses the sword of state, ineffectually far, clanging off
the back of the line of ogre-hai.

The Charioteer releases the dagger that he had been holding at the King's
chest, and gestures with a ring on his left hand.  A black spell fires
toward the doorway.  Paris uses her new once-a-week ability to cancel the
spell.  Silverlocke says, "Go!" and disappears.  He reappears behind the
line of ogres, dropping his sword and catching up the sword of state.
Apparently Raymond has indeed mastered a trick or two about teleportation.

The King drops, with a dagger in his chest, though we're pretty sure the
Charioteer didn't take the time to strike him with it.  The Prince charges
forward.  Rhori moves forward as well, trying to attract archer fire.  We
and several soldiers also advance, and the ogre-hai move up to meet us.  One
of them, noticing Silverlocke behind him, turns and fails to hit him.

Rhori sees that the guys on the balconies are humans, not Fell, and is
momentarily relieved, until they start shooting at him anyway.  Alexis takes
one arrow meant for the Prince.  On one side there's a lion's roar, throwing
off the aim for those archers.  (Hobbes didn't think to roar, since he had,
after all, been told to be very quiet.)

As the stricken King falls out of sight behind the ranks of ogres, the sword
of state held by Silverlocke starts to glow green.  (Not the dark green of
Rhori's badge, but a lighter green, closer to the king's heraldic color.)  A
sound comes from it, not a heavenly choir, but the sound of four thousand
angry horsemen.

The Charioteer draws his sword, which is glowing white like Paris's.  In
Fell, he shouts, "Get back in line, you fool!  We just have to hold them for
a couple of minutes."  He swings at Silverlocke, who blocks.  Calais, with a
saved action, shouts out, "They're stalling, he says they only need a couple
minutes!"

The soldiers and party members engaging the ogre-hai start to whittle
through them, but the ogres are indeed fighting defensively, swinging only
when we miss.  Silverlocke sweeps, killing the ogre who had turned to fight,
and carrying through into the Charioteer, who blocks.  Alexis swings at one
ogre, who blocks, but that ties up his shield so the Prince is able to hit
him twice in rapid succession.  The ogre seems to be dead or unconscious,
though it doesn't yet fall down.

Mia and Calais hear, behind us, the sound of skeletal feet.  Unlike the
earlier undead fighters who fought with us against the orcs, these sound
more organised, like marchers, but we don't know if that's good or bad.

Lucas suggests to Calais that he try climbing up to the balconies to jump
down behind the ogres and reach the King.  Calais moves up, with Lucas
staying nearby, to look around and judge what there might be to climb up
and/or swing down on.  Calais thinks a bit (segment 8) and figures he'll
have to improvise a grappling hook.  If he spends segment 12 on that, he'll
be able to swing over the ogres on segment 4, though he'll land within a
half move of them.  Lucas and Mia and Anton make further plans as Calais
starts tinkering.

The front line battle continues.  The Prince says, "Paris, get me through!
Press forward!"  Paris crits an ogre in the head; ogre brains go flying, and
she presses forward as ordered.  Three ogres swing at her, hitting for small
amounts of damage.  The Prince pushes into the opening; Rhori tries to stay
in front of him as he was instructed, but the Prince is too quick for him.
Together they start to break through the lines.  Some of the ogres fall back
to form a new vanguard.

Over the course of the battle, Paris gradually realises that her new sword
is +5 to hit vs Fell (and presumably also vs Dark), and does an extra 1.5
dice of damage (vs Fell and Dark).

Segment 12, Calais sees that he'll have to spend an extra phase moving
forward before he can make his leap for the chandelier, but as we start to
move up, those of us in the back see a phalanx of skeletons approaching.
Among them is a skeletal figure in black armor, mounted on the elf's dead
horse.  All of us recognise the figure as Death.  Lucas pulls out of his
part in the swashbuckling plan (darkness on the back rank of ogres) to go
shut the doors to buy whatever time we can.  Calais moves up and prepares
his grapple; Anton and Mia set and brace.

The skeletons in the lead are running full tilt, and Death is pointing one
bony finger forward.  Lucas shuts one door, and motions to the nearest
available soldier to shut the other.

In the thick of the battle, Rhori is taking enormous amounts of damage, but
since he can't feel any pain, he thinks he's invulnerable.  He doesn't
realise how close he is to dying.

Segment four, the swashbuckling team starts their plan.  Anton flashes the
ogres nearest the King's position, catching three in the back rank.  Mia
casts her slippery-running spell on the same group.

The Prince, who had to pause again vs the regrouped orcs, again orders Paris
and the others to get him through.  Paris obligingly sweeps and kills two
ogres in a single blow, but still fails to intimidate a third enough to make
it back off.  It hits her solidly.  She knows that spot is gonna hurt if
she's ever able to feel pain again.  Rhori also swings and forces an ogre to
block.  Prince William manages to down an ogre and move forward another
step.  Yet another ogre smacks the Prince, but doesn't take him down.

Segment eight.  Calais prepares to send his grapple into the chandelier, and
Mia prepares to cast another slipperiness spell while Anton is to put up a
force wall behind the ogres.  But before Calais and the mages can execute
their plan, the skeletons push open the door, Death gestures, and Calais's
rope disintegrates.  Calais gulps and charges forward on foot, hoping for
either an opening or a chance to leap over the ogres nearest the King.

Alexis pushes forward behind Paris, telling the soldiers not to let the
ogres close the hole behind her.  Three ogres swing at her, but miraculously
only one connects, and even that one fails to do any damage.  Rhori takes
yet another blow, but isn't quite dead yet.  Paris continues to try to make
an opening for the Prince.

Some skeletons (apparently speed 4) run up near Calais on segment 9, but
can't yet swing.  It does not bode well for Calais being able to run forward
on segment 12, though.

Meanwhile, the Charioteer and Silverlocke have continued to exchange blows,
but neither has yet connected.  Both seem to be speed 6.  (The sword of
state must bestow extra speed, among other things.)  They've mostly been
chopping up the throne and other furniture for a while now.

On twelve, Paris stuns one of the ogres fighting the Prince, and Rhori stuns
the other.  The Prince pushes forward.  Before Calais can head for the
opening, the two skeletons near him try to grab him.  One misses, but the
other forces Calais to block, preventing him from running further.  Death
rides into the room, continuing to point at Calais to direct additional
skeletons that way.  Mia casts a spell to slow some of the skeletons.

Segment three, four skeletons grab at Calais, and this time two of them
succeed.  Death dismounts and walks toward Calais, finger pointed at his
chest.  Calais finds himself unable to move.  Just as Death is about to
touch Calais, a skeleton grabs one of Calais's bags and interposes it.
Death takes the bag and rips it open, pulling out the giant-tree stick.  The
stick starts to glow, and the glow flows out over the figure of Death.  When
it passes, instead of the skeletal figure, it is now a young man from the
islands, with a gold circlet around his head.  He looks faintly like the
Prince.  It's King Essen, the "Lost King" (Queen Branwen's husband, who was
lost in battle and buried anonymously among all the other fallen soldiers so
that she could masquerade as him to keep the army from losing morale).
Calais stammers, "Take the other bag, too!"

The ogre-hai are starting to weaken.  Alexis dodges four attackers for two
swings in a row.  Prince William gets through the line at last and manages
to nick the Charioteer in the leg.  The Charioteer shouts in Fell, "Stop
him! Stop him!"

King Essen says, "I accept your spirit into my body," and pulls out the egg,
except it's now a rainbow colored globe.  All the colors in the room are
suddenly more vivid; we've entered Tarot.  An older voice says, "Hold."
None of us can move.  Even objects in midair are frozen in place.

Though our own frozen eyes see things in vivid colors, we somehow also seem
to be looking through a second set of eyes that see things in their "normal"
colors.  This second point of view is initially looking at the motionless
figure of a frightened Calais, and moves from there through the ranks of
ogres to where Silverlocke and Prince William are fighting the Charioteer.
The voice speaks again.  "Charioteer.  You have lost.  Surrender your sword
to that one (the gaze indicates the Prince), for he commanded the armies
that defeated you."

The Charioteer, who can now move, steps back and drops to one knee.  "My
liege.  We need only hold them for another minute.  Their spell will fail at
sunrise, then they'll collapse and be easy to mop up.  You can still have
your triumphal parade, dragging them behind the Chariot, with ropes around
their necks, through this city they once ruled."

The Emperor repeats his order.  "You have lost.  Surrender your sword to
that one.  You may take your surviving honor guard back with us."  For a
moment it looks like the Charioteer might revolt, but then he gives in.
"Your will, my liege."  He straps his sword onto Prince William.

The Chariot appears, drawn by two sphinxes, and the Emperor and Charioteer
and the surviving ogre-hai and human archers fade out as the colors in the
room return to normal and time starts again.  Those who know the Tarot
notice, however, that the Charioteer's pauldrons were ordinary-looking; they
were not the two faces of Umim and Thumin.

The Prince shouts "Dammit dammit dammit" and smashes his pick on the floor.

Mia rushes forward to the King.  She reaches for the dagger.  Time stops
again, and the red figure appears.  "Don't touch that, unless you wish me to
take you now.  That was made by Lucifrus Morgan.  He is preparing a way for
himself; he will come soon.  That blade was made by his priest; touch it,
and it will kill you.  Don't touch it unless you have an eighth of an inch
of lead between you and it."  (Apparently the blade can attack on its own,
which is how it ended up in the King when the Charioteer released it.)

Mia asks if there's any way to heal him.  "One of the things about that
dagger is that I must escort him quickly to the afterlife."  (It is, after
all, a "Morganti" blade.)  "But his spirit is strong, and he has a last
question to ask, if you will hear it."  Mia gives her assent.  "Very well.
Good night, Mia."

A very weak hand of the King reaches up, and he gasps, "Priest!"  It takes a
moment for Mia to recognise her cue; then she answers, "Yes?"  "When I was a
young man I fell in love.  I didn't know I had a son until long after I was
married, and I was afraid to recognise him, for the hurt it would cause
many.  But I want it to be known that Martin is a son of Bran.  Am I
forgiven?"  Mia assures him he is, and hurries through the ceremony of
forgiveness.  As she finishes, she sees the Prince reaching for the dagger
and warns him not to touch it.

Silverlocke gently places the sword of state lengthwise against the King's
body.  The green glow goes out.  Silverlocke starts sobbing.

Alexis frees the crown prince, checks him for bleeding, and asks where his
wife Katherine is.  "Off in the islands."

The Prince orders some guards down to the kennel to see how much of his
mother's body they can recover.  He starts to order the forces recalled, and
the crown prince tries to object, saying we should kill as many orcs as we
can.  Prince William points out that we won't have much of an army once the
raised undead collapse.  Before Prince Louis can override him, William
announces that the crown prince is not well, and orders him taken off to
recover.

Hobbes comes down from the balcony, wounded.  "Stepped in doggy poop," he
thinks to Rhori, his right hind leg not responding properly.  He adds that
he can't hear Rex any more.

Prince William tells Paris to go see if Queen Branwen needs anything from
us.  She hurries off.

The paramedics get to work quickly before people start bleeding, which we
expect will happen at sunrise.  Rhori heals Hobbes a bit, and gets bandaged
some, but wants to go look for Rex.  Alexis gets him to sit still for the
healers by offering to go up and look.  She finds what's left of Rex is in
several pieces.

Paris finds the Queen's statue still laying outside.  "Paris!  Did we win?"
Paris assures her we did.  The Queen replies, "My nation faces greater
dangers yet ahead.  Take my sword, and use it to protect against those
dangers.  Tell that however-great-grandson of mine that these are my wishes,
and that no one is to take that sword from you.  Am I clear?"  "Very clear,
your Majesty.  I will do my best to be worthy of this trust."

Branwen goes on, "Paris, I thought I felt my husband go past."  "I believe
he did, your Majesty."  "Did he survive?"  "Yes, he is the Emperor."  "Will
he be buried beside me?"  Paris hesitates over this question, then answers,
"He is not going to be buried for some time, I think."  "Then I shall sleep
alone again.  It is a lonely thing to sleep alone.  Try not to do that,
Paris."  After a moment, the Queen adds, "That's only a suggestion, not an
order."  As the sunlight finally hits her, the spell ends, and all the pain
and endurance and such from the night come home to roost.  We all pass out.

When we finally recover enough stun to come to, we find we're at negative
ten long term endurance (i.e., we've used up all our long term endurance,
and then some), so any activity causes us to pass out again.  Paris wakes to
find some of the Earl of Eastgate's troops are going around binding wounds.
The Earl asks them, "Can she be moved yet?"  "My lord," replies the guard
examining her, "I'm not sure why she's _alive_."  The guards put her on a
stretcher and carry her back into the throne room.

The Prince asks Paris if Queen Branwen had anything to say.  Paris reports
what Branwen said about greater dangers to come, and her using the sword.
When she stops at that, Earl Eastgate pipes up and adds that Branwen also
said her however-great-grandson was to ensure that no one took the sword
from Paris.  William sighs and struggles to his feet, and asks if any herald
survived.  Alexis answers, and William asks if she will act as his herald.
She replies, "I have already said I would, my Lord," and also struggles up.
William asks someone to find her a staff; she's given the standard for the
First Kingdom Heavy Cavalry, with which she props herself up, standing on
the step below the Prince, to his right.

Prince William stands at the top of the steps amidst the splinters of the
thrones.  He looks around the room, face impassive, until he sees Mia.
"Mia, of the Rainbow Church.  Would you please come and stand there," he
says, gesturing at the tile at the foot of the steps.  Gritting her teeth,
Mia staggers forward.  When he's sure she's not going to fall over, he
continues, his own voice much steadier than he looks.  "We thank you for
your service to our father.  Will you undertake to hear confessions from our
family, and hold such counsel to yourself, and to god... sorry, the gods, if
required?  Will you also witness such publicly, when required?"

Mia nods twice.  Alexis whispers to her, "You have to say 'yes.'"  Mia takes
a deep breath and stammers, "Y-y-yes sir."

The Prince nods.  "Then Mia, I name you Confessor of the Blood, empowered,
entitled and entrusted with the confessions of my family.  Please, stand
here."  He indicates the step just below him, to his left, opposite Alexis.

The Prince turns.  "Paris?"  "My Lord."  "Can you come here and kneel?"  No
way.  Two of Eastgate's soldiers bring the stretcher over to the steps, and
the Earl and the others help set her upright on her knees.

Prince William's voice again takes on a formal tone.  "Earl, do we
understand that Queen Branwen has proposed this one as Candidate?"  The Earl
looks squarely back at him and replies levelly, "Yes, my liege."

William looks over to where Silverlocke is still grieving over the body of
the king, shrouded now by one of the wall hangings.  "Has she passed the
tests of knighthood?"  He is about to try to rouse Silverlocke when another
voice intrudes.  "She has, my liege," says the commander of the First Heavy
Cavalry as he, too, forces himself to rise.  "I saw him... sorry, her, take
the tests, demonstrating his, HER, proficiency at arms, skill with the
horse, and knowledge of the realm.  I would be proud to account her knight."

William looks momentarily relieved, then, impassive again, turns to Alexis.
"Tell me of this one's family and deeds."  Alexis gives a recitation.  The
family part is sort of light, though it mentions Paris was in service to the
Duke of Westmore and such.  The deeds go on a while.

He turns next to Mia.  "Does the Church have aught to say about the
candidate?  Is she of good morals?  Well in the sight of god, sorry, the
gods?"  Mia looks surprised, and nods.  "Yes.  Um, yes."

Prince William looks around the room.  "Are there any here of the Council of
Lords who oppose this knighting?"  One of the other good fighters, a
lieutenant of some sort, manages to stand.  (Some of us, such as Alexis,
might recognise him as one of the Armsmasters judging the competition back
in Westmore.)  "My liege, I have seen this one fight and ride.  I have
spoken with some of the other lords in the First.  We would be proud to ride
with her again."  (Calais was a bit worried when he saw someone rise to
speak, given the question, but concludes that it is traditional to have
someone reply even when there is no opposition.)

William returns his attention to the kneeling woman.  "Paris, you kneel
before us this day, having indicated your willingness to accept Knighthood
in the Kingdom of the Isles and Tara.  Having been adjudged fit for this
honor, do you, Paris, swear by all you hold sacred and true that you will
honor and obey the Crown of the Kingdom of the Isles and Tara, honor and
defend all ladies...er, better change this part, all those weaker than
yourself, give courtesy to your Peers, honor the King as your Conscience and
your Conscience as the King, and conduct yourself as befits a Knight,
drawing your sword only for just cause and being chivalrous to all to the
greater glory of yourself and the Crown?  Will you undertake to dispense, as
required," and his voice takes on a harder edge, "Justice low, middle, and
high in our Name?"

There is a long pause as Paris considers, weaving slightly side to side.
Finally she answers, "I will."

Prince William reaches down and draws his sword; but it is the sword that
the Charioteer strapped onto him.  The blade blazes white, as does his
badge, and for a moment there is a heavenly chorus singing loud as he looks
at the sword, surrounded by a curtain of white light.  He swallows, and his
voice is steady as he continues.  "Then We, William, by right of arms of the
Kingdom of the Isles and Tara, in unbroken line back to Bran, do swear to
defend you and your household until Death take us, or the World ends."  He
sets the flat of the blade on her shoulder, and for a moment both are
alight.  "Let this be the last blow you ever receive unanswered.  Rise, Sir
Paris du Astraea, First Knight of the Royal Order of Justice, Guardian of
the Sword of Queen Branwen."  As he lifts the sword to put it back into its
scabbard, he looks over to Alexis.  "The Order badge is sword and scales
argent over a field of green.  We leave the details of her device to you."
He looks around at the participants.  "We thank you for your aid.  This
Court is adjourned."

At this point the story train goes off of its equivalent of the speed clock,
and we wrap up the run with an assortment of disconnected items.

There will be a month of mourning for the late King.  During this period
there can be no knightings, but by doing the knighting on the battlefield
Prince William was able to circumvent that.

Alexis suggests that if someone could go back to the tomb, Claire and Pierre
might be able to fetch help from Dungeon.  Calais notes that that won't
reach us for two days.  (Wait till tomorrow for the vehicle to work again,
then two days for the round trip.)

Part of the city is on fire, including the library.  It will take a while
for it to burn down enough to get to the rainbow church stuff hidden there,
not to mention assessing the damage to the books.

Over the next few days, the Prince will have to decide which of the dead Mia
should try to raise.  (His mother is presumably irrecoverable since key
parts, such as the heart, have been eaten.  The king cannot be raised
because the evil dagger accelerated the passing of his soul, which is why
the red god of dying had to take him so quickly.)

Mia tells the Earl's men how to safely handle the dagger.  Silverlocke
eventually rouses enough to ask Mia if she knows how to destroy it.  She
says no, and explains that it was made by Lucifrus Morgan, who she believes
is the Devil, the black god.

Prince William instructs the Earl of Eastgate to arrange Royal quarters for
William and Prince Martin -- indicating Silverlocke.  He has himself housed
between between Silverlocke and Crown Prince Louis, lest there be any
squabbles about the succession before it can be properly sorted out.

Alexis makes sure she stays near Silverlocke in case he wants someone to
talk to, but doesn't press him.  He seems to appreciate her consideration,
but stays pretty quiet; he's always been a quiet sort of guy, and he's just
lost his father, his companion, and his elven friend.

There's an enormous number of cards, which William distributes among the
army.  We each get two cards, as do many of the other soldiers who fought
in the throne room.  [Unless someone tells me otherwise, I will assume
Lucas, Alexis, and Paris keep theirs, as they've done in the past, and
Calais carries the rest.]