[Notes for the run of January 6, 2000.]

The Earl of Eastgate fills in Prince William on some of what happened, both
last night and before our arrival.

The people in the Eastgate fortress were not affected by Branwen's spell,
which is why they're up and about, doing healing and such.  They include the
Kingdom Second Heavy Cavalry, who were holed up in the fortress.

Everybody is wounded, and many are dead.  Of our original 5000 horsemen,
4000 were alive when we began the charge from the tomb, and about 3000 are
alive now.  They've also liberated some human slaves the Warlord had been
carting around for odd jobs and quick snacks.

The orcs originally attacked about a week ago.  They used magic spells to
break down the gates on the north and west of the city and got to the palace
in a single night's assault.  They surrounded Eastgate, but the Earl had
taken William's advice and gotten the younger White Church priests into the
fortress.  That plus the Cavalry was sufficient to hold off the orcs for the
past week, especially since the orcs didn't seem intent on taking it
immediately.

Most parts of the city not already trashed by the orcs, were trashed in last
night's battle.

Those of us who didn't already know the history of Pelier pick up some of it
as we listen to the Earl's report.  Apparently the Eastgate fortress was the
original fort; the palace and city rose later as the mountain gradually got
carved out.  Eastgate is still a very important part of Pelier, and the Earl
of Eastgate is therefore a very important personage in the royal hierarchy.
For some reason, this seems to bother Anton.

Eventually Eastgate suggests William and the rest of us get some rest, which
is when William suggests putting his room between Louis and Martin.
Eastgate does ask that any healers come down to help tend to the wounded, at
least as soon as we're able to stand at all.  In addition to healers,
Eastgate has some peasants who had taken refuge in the fortress, now out
trying to help get the horses under control, set up some soup kitchens, and
so forth.

Back in the lava track vehicle, Claire and Pierre are playing cards while
the old priests snooze in the corner.  (All but one, who's into them for
several crowns by now.)  Pierre keeps an eye on his crystal that shows the
surface, and finally spots movement.  Once they determine that the visitors
are good guys, they go up and are given a scroll from Prince William to
carry to Dungeon, calling for support from the mages and priests there.
Claire grins in anticipation of mobilising the recalcitrant Dungeon mages.
She also suggests leaving the thirteen priests behind to help in Pelier.

Toward the end of the day, Silverlocke rouses himself to speak to Alexis,
who's been staying nearby.  "Lady Alexis."  She comes over at once and asks,
"Can I do something for you?"  "You can do me two favors.  If you're with
your Duke sometime in the future, and Miller starts to say something that
annoys him, would you please remind Duke Evan to be patient.  Miller's a
good man.  I had some people ask the survivors of his town.  Apparently his
father was not the easiest man to get along with...  And could you see if
you can find him and send him in please?"

Alexis asks if there's anything else, and Silverlocke says no.  But she
remains a moment and asks, "If I'm not being too presumptuous, may I speak
freely to you?"  He thinks a moment, then assents "From what you say, it
would seem you do not expect to be seeing Duke Evan again."  "There will be
a month of mourning for the king, then a period while the Council of Lords
decides what to do.  I will be sending Miller away for that time."  "To
where?"  "Westmore to start.  I will have to be where the Council is."
Alexis notes that Pelier will not be habitable soon, and that the council
may move to Westmore.  "Then I will be where they are."  She goes on, "I do
not know what you intend, but it seems that we have all known some tragedy,
some more than others.  Do not do nothing.  I think that is the worst thing
to do."  Silverlocke stands by a curtain for a bit, looking out the window,
and finally says, "I do not think that will be one of my choices."  "Do you
wish me to come back?"  "I need to speak with Miller."  "When you're done,
if you would like my company, tell him to fetch me."

She goes off and finds Rhori, who has finally gotten some rest.  She tells
him Prince Martin wants to see him.  In response to his blank look, she
explains, "Silverlocke."  She helps Rhori hobble to Silverlocke's room.
When she gets there, a page tells her that Prince William would like to
speak with her.

[Most of the Rhori/Silverlocke conversation seems to have been run offline,
but I caught one bit that got whispered between them "live".]  Rhori asks
Silverlocke if he has a Key.  He does.  Silverlocke says, "Because you got
one, mine works."

William has been busy writing lots of stuff at his desk.  He thanks Alexis
for acting as his herald, but says he would like her to return to Westmore
with the first group.  "There are some things that need to be said to my
sister and the Duke in a particular order.  The news of my father's death,
for example.  But there is no way you would be able to ride that far without
people asking for something."

He goes on, "I am preparing some notes for Evan and Carline."  Alexis says
she's also prepared a report for the Duke, and offers it to the Prince to
read.  William says he'll look it over and give it back to her tomorrow.
Then he proceeds with his instructions.  She is to tell first of the
victories, and of the recognition of Prince Martin as eldest son.  Then she
should pause to see if they want to give any news in return.  She should
also ask Martin if he wants to give his blessing to Evan and Carline.
"He'll know what it's about."

William adds, "It is probably best if Paris and her brother travel with you
as well.  I don't know what Martin's plans are for Miller.  And of course
Mia will have to remain here."  Alexis says Martin said he'd be sending
Miller to Westmore.  William says expects Eastgate to send many of the
refugees there as well.

He mentions that he expects an army from the Isles to arrive at Pelier soon,
albeit a tad too late.

Eastgate will be staffed by a rotation to prevent looting, but other than
that Pelier will be evacuated.  We'll need to figure out what's left to be
salvaged from the palace and other important parts of the city.

They discuss use of the lava track vehicle, and the telluricomm spell.
"I've asked the Emerald Baron and Count Dungeon to send a telluric
communicating mage, if they have one."

When they finish talking, William asks Alexis to send in Sir Paris.

Paris has been hanging around near William's room, trying not to sog up too
many bandages.  William asks her how she's doing, and she claims to be fine.
Then he gets her view on how things are going about the city.  Finally he
says, "The next month is going to be spent with nothing getting done.
Mourning for the King.  Followed by some long session with the Council of
Lords while they decide which of the three brothers should become king.
None of that is anything that your sword will be particularly good for.  So
you should go back to Westmore with the first of the groups, help escort the
refugees that Eastgate is sending, and help make a report to Duke Westmore
about what happened here.  I've given Lady Alexis some, um, specific
instruction for how the first part of the report should be made; please
follow her lead."  "I'm sure she'll do a fine job, my Lord."

"But then, what to do next?"  "Finish the quest for repairing the Mirror, my
Lord."  "What does that entail?"  "To the best of my knowledge, it entails
bringing back the rest of the gods now, as we did with the Keys."  "What do
we do with the Keys?  Besides guard them?"  "Judging from what we learned
from Sir Juda, we use the Keys when we make the Choice."  "Well, that sounds
like as good an idea as any.  Certainly if it reduces the number of orcs,
that would help."  "There is no guarantee that it will.  That seems to be
what Sir Juda thought he was doing."  "Do what you can.  Send me a note with
whatever you find out."  They wish each other luck and Paris departs.

(Paris goes off to try to find out whether Jules Chivar survived the battle.
This was run offline, but apparently he did survive.)

Alexis goes to Silverlocke with William's message about what to say to Evan
and their sister.  Silverlocke eventually figures out what William is
getting at.  "Ah, William _is_ audacious.  When are you leaving?"  "In two
days."  "Ask me again tomorrow."

Rhori waits until Sir Paris finishes talking to William, then goes to talk
to him as well.  William asks him to come back tomorrow.  Rhori mentions "I
don't think your brother is taking this very well."  William thinks he's
talking about Louis, learning he's not the eldest.  Rhori explains no, he's
talking about Martin.  The usual confusion builds.  Rhori asks whether
Martin knew he was William's brother.  William says he didn't know, but he
suspects Martin already knew.  Rhori goes "Oops."  After much prompting and
prodding, the Prince determines that Rhori hadn't realised that William
didn't know the Martin knew, and Rhori was concerned about having let it
slip.

Alexis tries to see Louis, but he is in seclusion until he can be attended
by the Royal Chirurgeon.  Since there isn't any Royal Chirurgeon at the
moment, this could take a while.  So say the guards, four deep outside the
door.  Facing in.  Alexis asks them to convey her concern.  Inwardly, she's
elated at not having to speak with the Crown Prince.

Calais helps a bit with the salvage operations.  He manages to resist ending
up with anything particularly valuable (and sucks up another card toward
curing himself of his "habit").  He looks in on the library, but it's too
full of smoke to breathe in, and the flooring is treacherous as well.  He
resolves to talk to Mia tomorrow about using a water breathing spell to let
him walk around with his face in a bucket of water.

Next day, we notice that Mia is loaning her spare set of rainbow robes to
some fellow named Pyotr, who has a very thick accent.  Apparently he's
another rainbow healer, but doesn't have his own robes.  Under the robes
he's got just a loincloth, and he's pretty scrawny.

As we chat with Pyotr, he expresses surprise that the orcs were here.  He
asks where they came from, and Calais starts to explain about the land on
the other side of magic mirrors, but that's not what Pyotr meant.  It's that
he thought all the orcs had been driven off long ago.  Someone asks, "By
you?"  "No, by great hero.  Sir Juda."  The rest of us exchange looks, then
explain cautiously that that was a long time ago.  Pyotr says no, it was
only six months ago.

Okay, we're hooked now.  We ask for his story, but there's not much to tell.
Pyotr was on top of a wall, the ground shook, he fell off the wall, his leg
got tangled in a rope and he banged his head.  When he woke up he found he
had been captured by orcs.  That was six months ago.

Paris says she hopes he will be happy here.  "Where is here?"  "The Kingdom
of the Isles and Tara."  We ask Pyotr where _he's_ from, and he says
"Bolon."  He says Bolon has, or had, a King, who in turn served Emperor
Prolerian and Empress Katherine, who ruled in Paris.  (Our Paris nods; the
Emperor's name matches the one Genelle gave as the last ruler of Torat, back
when we first met the Kelly elves and were trying to figure out how old they
were.)  Bolon was a long way southwest of Paris.  (Think Bordeaux?  Bayonne?
It's the wrong way for Boulogne.)  We figure Pyotr must've been held by orcs
in Tarot for a while, and Anton wonders how he got back to Torat; maybe it
would tell us something about how the orcs get here.  Pyotr says they took
through a very long tunnel, carrying stuff for the orcs.

As Rhori wanders over, we ask Pyotr if he knows about the Orders of Nature
and Man.  He says he does, and correctly identifies Rhori's and Paris's
badges.

With Rhori joining the conversation, we expect there to be confusion, and we
are not disappointed.  When Paris mentions that Sir Juda died a long time
ago, Rhori objects, no, he died just a few weeks ago.  Calais tries to point
out that Sir Juda himself said he had already died, but Rhori will have none
of that, and adds, "Paris killed him."  Pyotr is taken aback.  As we try to
smooth that one over, Rhori and Pyotr get into an argument as to whether
Juda killed lots of orcs or killed lots of people.  Paris eventually calms
them down again.  Next, when Pyotr repeats his tale of having been with the
orcs for two seasons, Rhori grabs Pyotr and accuses him of lying, since,
Rhori points out, "Orcs eat people."  We remind Rhori that Earl Eastgate
said the orcs had some human slaves that they used for labor before eating
them.  Embarrassed, Rhori releases Pyotr, apologises, and introduces
himself.  He says Pyotr should ask for him if he needs anything.

To try to get a better idea where Pyotr is from, we dig out a map.  The only
one handy is the one Anton copied in Lions.  Unlike us, Pyotr thinks it
really does look like the world as he knows it.  He shows us where Bolon is,
on the ocean coast southwest of Paris.  Calais tells him that the peninsula
to the southeastisn't there any more, except for some islands; we think
that's part of what Sir Juda did by messing with magic stuff.  Pyotr is
dismayed.  "Where you get olives?"  "What's an olive?"

Meanwhile, various people meet with the Princes.  Silverlocke does give his
blessing to Evan and Carline.  William tells Paris that "Miller has asked to
speak to Justice to ask for the boon Justice offered him."  William can't be
there, but hopes that if Paris asks in His name, she and Rhori will be
allowed to enter the tower to see Justice.  Prince William also asks Paris
her opinion of Jules Chivar, who has asked to join their Order.  Should he
be allowed to join?  She says she thinks he'd be excellent member.

Mia's water-breathing spell is not sufficient to get into the library, since
a bucket of water lasts only about as long as a bucket of air would.  Not to
mention that it's hard to see what you're doing with your head in a bucket.
Anton is frustrated that Calais can't invent some way to clear the smoke.
Calais snaps back, "_You're_ the air mage!  Why can't _you_ clear the air?"
Pyotr remarks that the orcs carried off many of the books that were there,
but he wasn't involved in that so he doesn't know which ones.

At some point we introduce Alexis to Pyotr.  She shows him _her_ maps, but
he doesn't believe those are right.  We explain to Alexis that Pyotr is from
before the World was broken.

Calais suggests to Mia that she ask Pyotr about the gods.  D'oh!  Sure
enough, he's able to fill in many gaps in her knowledge.  He says there were
seven, and ticks through the colors, as Mia scribbles hasty notes.  Orange
is when you start on a journey or a big change.  Yellow is when you want to
learn something.  Red is dying.  Green is luck.  Blue is "doing magic" (as
distinct from learning magic, which would be yellow).  Indigo is marriage.
Violet is birth.  Then almost as an afterthought, Pyotr says there were two
others.  To nobody's surprise, they are White and Black.  Their spheres?
White is Death, Black is Nature.  But they left.  He doesn't know why; it
happened in his mother's time.  There's one church that worships those two.
It's called the Church of Order.  They're very strict.

Mia tells him that the Rainbow Church disappeared for a long time, and the
White and Black churches split up some time ago, we don't know when.  (Even
before the night of change, there were rumors of a black church.  Of course,
some of us suspect that, even now, the White and Black churches are really
one and the same, at least at some level.)  Pyotr mentions that he used to
use a colored pinwheel instead of robes for his spells.  When you spin the
wheel, the colors blend and look white and black, so you can never really
remove them, a problem that was still the focus of some concern in the
Rainbow Church of his day.

We ask him about the Tarot deck.  He knows of fortune-tellers, but not much
more.  "Maybe when pass test, know more."  Test?  It seems that in his day,
there was a test you had to pass to become a rainbow priest.  Mia's worried
about this, since she hasn't taken any test.  Pyotr explains that one
studies for the test by reading the floor of the church; Mia knows about
that.  She and Pyotr both understand that acolytes spend most of their time
mopping that floor.

Mia gives Paris a message to take to Henri:  "The dream was right.  But
Paris isn't dangerous."  She also asks Pyotr to talk to Henri about Rainbow
Church history.

We move the wounded out to the lava track vehicle using wagons, to start
shipping them to Westmore.  We pass the Emerald Baron with a large force,
including several mages, headed toward Pelier.  One of the water mages knows
a different long-distance communication spell with which he can talk to a
mage back in Dungeon.

Before we can get everybody into the vehicle, the Army of the Isles turns
up, including the Hierophant.  They proudly relate that they broke the main
force of the orcs; there must've been ten thousand of them.  (To the extent
that we can grasp such numbers at all, we think there were about half a
million orcs.  The ten thousand is just what got away.  We figure these guys
will figure this out eventually, when they see the piles of bodies at and
around Pelier.  We continue carting everything down into the hole to the
vehicle; unfamiliar with magic, the Isles forces don't seem to notice that
nobody's coming back out again.

We pop out near Westmore, and ride in.  Alexis makes sure we leave the
official "for public consumption" announcements to her as we ride in.  Pyotr
stays back with the wounded, and of course Mia stayed in Pelier.  The rest
of us quickly find ourselves in court.

As instructed, Alexis tells just the good news at first.  Eventually she
comes to Prince Martin's blessing, and then says that Prince William told
her to pause here.  Carline is the first to puzzle it out.  She turns to
Duke Evan and says, "Evan.  Pending approval of the eldest male in my
family, I accept your proposal."  The Duke looks confused for a moment, then
he too understands.  Turning to Alexis, he tells her, "Before you continue,
would you please announce, as my Herald, that, pending approval of her
family, the Princess Carline has accepted my proposal of marriage."  Alexis
does so.  Then they ask Alexis to continue.  After she tells the bad news,
of course, they too are restricted by the period of mourning and could no
longer have made the announcement.  (Silverlocke is right: William _is_
audacious.)

Anton is, of course, called upon to tell the epic tale.  Having spent over a
day working on it by now, he does a fine job.  Everybody gets credit where
credit is due, including all the party members, the leaders, and so forth.
The Duke compliments him on a rousing tale.  Anton looks about the room and
sees Lords Gryphon and Chivar, but (as usual) none of their charges.  (I.e.,
neither Lorraine or Cordelia.  Oh well.)  The Duke tells Lord Gryphon to go
cancel Rodric's vigil scheduled for tonight.  Paris slumps in sympathy,
though she knew it would happen.  It turns out, however, that Rodric is
content to wait, since it will allow his family to be present for his
knighting.  We learn that Ewen was knighted in our absence, the day after
Paris.  The next knighting would have been Jules, but he was with us, so
they skipped that one.

We also learn that a thousand or so orcs tried to hit Westmore the night of
the eclipse.  Somehow that doesn't sound like so many, now.  We're told that
"Sir Ewen" distinguished himself in that battle (though he wasn't actually
"Sir" Ewen yet; he was knighted the next day).  During the battle the orc
prison outside got set on fire.  As near as they can tell, none of the orcs
there got away.  Calais is a bit disappointed; he was hoping to use the orc
prisoners as a way of learning the language a bit better.

Rhori asks about Fort Carcassone.  The last word from there was that they
still hold the pass.  The news from there is updated daily, but there's a
couple day lag.

Paris asks about the Black Church hunt and Brillig.  She's told Brillig went
off somewhere to commune.  It was too noisy here.

She eventually goes and finds Lorraine, who chastises "Sir Paris" for going
and getting knighted without using the fine outfit she'd helped prepare for
the occasion.

Pyotr arrives with the wagons.  He thinks Westmore looks like the pictures
he's seen of Paris, but there's no river here.  He figures we built a city
modelled after Paris.

A force including several priests comes out from Westmore to meet them.
Pyotr hears someone being called Henri, and goes up to talk to him.  "No
Mia?"  Huh?  "You know Mia?"  They sort it out.  Henri asks if Mia is at the
palace, and Pyotr explains she stayed behind to heal those who can't be
moved.  "She say I have to talk to you.  Have question about church.  Also
need bath.  Perhaps you notice."  After tending to the wounded, the two of
them go off.

After court, Alexis's father, Lord delaPont, asks her, "I know singers like
to exaggerate, but were you really surrounded by four ogre-hai?"  "I wasn't
surrounded.  Paris was behind me."  He suggests that Alexis find a room in
the palace where she can get out of her armor and bathe before going home
and letting her mother see her.  But as he leaves, he says, "Lex.  I'm very
proud of you."  "Then you won't mind if I join the next class, right?"
Mind?  Yes, but he'll permit it as long as the Duke agrees.  Alexis already
knows the Duke will permit it.  (Although the Duke does point out that the
Gryphon's class isn't the only way; there will be another tourney and test
in the spring, and once Alexis has learned the basic knightly things she
needs, she can test in that.  It's not as much of a problem for Alexis to
learn the non-combat things as it was for Paris.)

The next day, the guards that showed up with the heavy wagons are now
escorting the Princess back to the lava track vehicle, so she can join the
Council of Lords.

Somewhere along the way, either in the vehicle or the next day when we get
together, or whatever, we manage to discuss what we should do next.  (See
email?)  We have a bit more info now thanks to Pyotr's knowledge of the
spheres of the gods.  We decide orange, the goddess of starting a journey,
seems to match the image of Temperance.  And indeed, Calais points out that
the elf, Lly'llll, was of a clan that likes to travel, and the Hanged Man
said we'd call the orange goddess the same thing we call the elf.  Anton
describes the image of the Tarot figure, and Rhori recalls that the elf wore
a symbol that matches part of the description: a triangle within a square.
And Anton notes the triangle is orange.

So, we want to research Temperance and the travelling elves.  We want to
investigate the city where Rhori found orcs who had human slaves, which we
now think is where Bolon was.  We want to investigate the old site of Paris,
now that the Charioteer is gone.  And Rhori needs to go talk to the Kelly,
to tell them about the elf who died at Pelier.  Besides, setting out on a
journey seems like a fine excuse to invoke the goddess of travel.

At some point Paris and Rhori talk to the Duke about letting Rhori petition
Justice for a boon.  A page takes them to the room at the base of the tower,
and Paris calls for Justice.  Rhori disappears, and Paris (and the page) get
to watch in the circle in the floor as he talks to Justice.  To make a
typical Rhori story short, Rhori wants to stop being so stupid, because with
Silverlocke occupied Rhori realises it might be important for him to be
smarter about various things.  But it's not that easy; Justice warns that he
can restore balance to the scales, but he cannot guarantee that that will
bring happiness.  To show why the scales are not yet balanced for Rhori,
Justice shows him images of a man beating a child on several occasions; on
at least one occasion the child falls and badly injures his head.  Rhori
recognises the man as his father but doesn't realise who the child is.
Justice offers Rhori a choice: he can have the effects of the injustice
against him undone, or he can forgive the injustice.  Rhori is, of course,
confused, and eventually says he can't decide yet, so he bamfs back to
Paris.  Paris tries to explain to Rhori what the choices mean.  He can be
smarter, like he wants, which will help a lot of people, or he can forgive
his father, which will help his father's spirit.  Rhori doggedly resists
understanding, but eventually the explanations break through his
defenses. :-)  He thinks maybe this is his only chance to help his father,
and maybe he can use cards to get smarter?  But Paris [after some prompting
from Pat] thinks the cards can't undo the damage done, and it's the damage
that's keeping Rhori from being smart.  [I.e., adding INT won't help; he
needs to buy off a disad, and that requires an in-story justification.]  So
nope, no easy out by that route.  Rhori struggles to understand enough to
make his choice, just as we will someday need to Understand enough to make
our Choice.  For now, he decides to think about it some more.  They leave
the tower, and Rhori discusses the problem with others of the party.  But
though we offer various viewpoints and insights, we all agree that it has to
be Rhori's decision.  We also agree that deciding not to make either choice
at this point would be wrong; that's the coward's way out.