[Notes for the run of March 29, 2000.] Temperance expresses some consternation over our mentioning the name Lucifrus Morgan. "Are you sure? It's very strange, since it combines two things. Lucifrus is the title of the keeper of fire? the flames? Lucky Morgan was Nature." Calais asks if the Devil used to be a Major. She says no. Rhori tries listing the Majors we know, and asks her which of the old Majors we're missing. But she doesn't recognise all of the new names, so it's hard for her to compare. She does tell us who was in the old Tarot. As expected, it includes the four elements and the twelve zodiac, plus 21 others (instead of the current 22). [Apparently the 21 vs 22 had come up previously, though I don't recall it.] They are listed in no particular order, except that I've put the elements/zodiac on the right. Beggar Capricorn Servant Aquarius Artisan Pisces Merchant, sometimes known as Rhetoric Aries Knight, sometimes known as Logic Taurus Emperor, sometimes known as First Cause Gemini Luna Cancer Mercury Leo Venus Virgo Earth (planet) Libra Marte Scorpio Saturno Sagittarius Jupiter Seated, sometimes known as Prime Mover Earth (element) Faith, sometimes called Mystery Air Hope Fire Charity Water Temperance (okay, so she did recognize her name) Chronico, also known as the Ouroboros Dragon Iliaco, also known as the Solar Dragon Cosmico, also known as the Dragon of Nature Tower She's surprised so much has changed in so short a time. We raise our eyebrows, and she goes on to say that there's a Choice made every 47 years, and she only missed one, so it can't have been very long. We try to explain how long it's been, at least as seen from our point of view. Anton says that the last Choice happened a thousand or more years ago, at about the same time as the breaking of the Mirror and the reorganisation of the churches. Calais tries to express his uncertainty as to when the Choice was (i.e., when the Majors got changed around) -- he's seen no evidence to place that event at all close to the churches or Mirror stuff -- but it's damn near impossible to get a word in edgewise when Anton's on a roll. (I have no idea what anyone else thinks. About the events, that is, not about the impossibility of interrupting Anton. :-) Even the church split and Mirror breaking weren't all _that_ simultaneous; they were separated by about a generation. (The churches split in Pyotr's mother's time.) We ask Cora to describe Lucifrus and Lucky. "Lucky was this big guy. Guardian of Nature." (Rhori's pretty sure he wasn't mentioned in his Order's training book, though.) When asked, she says no, he didn't have horns or black skin. She does get a sort of silly grin, apparently recalling Morgan's, um, earthy nature. She says that if, as we say, the elements were put into the suits in the new Minor Arcana, that would mean some of the Minors took over the role of the guardians of them. Neither she nor we can be sure which Minors became such guardians, though. Anton confirms that the face cards were part of the minors in the old Tarot, too. Somewhere along the way she mentions that Parsinius was not a name, but a title, the title for the guardian of water. That's why Parsinius was responsible for the cups of earth and heaven. A human (by which she appears to mean one of the Minors) would have taken over being guardian of fire. But somehow one of the swords has gotten mixed in with him, and she doesn't understand that. (We figure if _she_ doesn't understand it, we sure as heck won't. But Understanding is Key!) Anton asks if when the Choice happens, can a Minor Choose to become a Major? She says yes. He asks if she herself made such a choice. She says, close enough. But these choices aren't the 47-year choices she referred to; this sort of choice can happen inbetween, as when Genelle chose to accept the role of High Priestess. Some have choice; the Majors don't, they do what they have to do. Which reminds her, she has to get going. Pyotr haltingly asks for her to say something obscure like other gods have done. She says she's not that kind of god. The absolute best thing is to recover the cup for me, then I'll find you again and give you a clue. Anton asks the best way to journey back. She suggests we ride our horses, though she adds that a flying vehicle would be better. She also says that there's a storm coming. Rhori asks if we need to go straight to the cup or whether we can do other things on the way. She says it depends on whether there are others looking for it. We recall the books missing from the Westmore library, and figure yes, others are looking. We figure in particular Singer's team is looking, since Singer made a remark about Alexis "not even knowing about the priest's cup." Pyotr asks her to bless our journey. She gets a pained look, and bestows a blessing along the lines of, "Yes, a blessing on you and your journey, a thousand footsteps, ... and stop groveling!" She trots off, somehow vanishing into the distance much more rapidly than her rate of movement would lead us to expect. We invite Llyurylly'yl to travel with us, and he cheerfully agrees. We set off. The storm hits the next day. We're too far from Brest to shelter there, so we hole up as best we can. Rhori's horse develops a bad cough and dies. The storm lasts six days. We get low on food; even Hobbes is having trouble finding game. (So perhaps it's a good thing Rhori's horse died.) When we come out, the landscape is very different. About two-thirds of the trees have fallen over, and the ground is iced over. We have to lead the horses because they're too weak to be ridden. We more or less retrace our route, though some of the rivers we crossed easily on our way west, are too dangerous now, so we head a bit more inland instead of following the coast. The second week after the storm, it mostly rains, turning to ice during the night. The rain at least helps clear the ground so the horses forage a bit better. The next week it storms again, again for six days. The horses are looking pretty scrawny. When it turns into ordinary rain, we set out again. [For an exact calendar, ask Paris or Rhori.] After a while, it turns clear and cold. That first clear night turns out to be a full moon, so Anton looks for the cloud castle he heard about in Tauban. Sure enough, there it is. Calais digs out his telescope and this time shows anyone who's interested how to use it, spending some time adjusting it. (It takes a turn of full concentration and requires a DEX roll at -1, bestows +10 PER vs range. It also occupies his hands and part of his concentration as long as he continues to use it.) He can make it out quite clearly. It's definitely a castle, all in white, somewhat reminiscent of the one in Westmore. Anton says he wants to see who lives there. If nothing else, it's better than camping out in the cold again. The rest of us agree to go along, except for Alexis who, being cardboard, stays to guard the horses. We head into the hills toward the castle. Eventually we lose track of it in the fog. Anton flies up to get his bearings, and we continue to adjust our path toward it. He repeats this process occasionally, and as we get closer he starts carrying a rope in case he finds he can reach the castle and needs to supply a way up for the rest of us. Sometime after midnight, when he pops up out of the clouds, he finds himself right at the doorway. He's only about 40 feet up, so he calls down to us and says he's going to try to find a place to tie the rope. Rhori suggests maybe he should find out if we're welcome first. The door is large, but not giant-sized. There is a large silver ring as a knocker. He knocks; no answer. Again; still no answer. The door looks like it opens inward, but he pushes gently and it seems locked. Anton calls down that nobody seems to be home. Meanwhile, Llyurylly'yl seems to find some rocks that he can walk up on. Calais watches where he's stepping and follows along. Everyone else continues to wait below. Llyurylly'yl and Calais arrive at the top and find a white wall with a foot-wide ledge, which they edge along to get to the front. They find Anton leaning over the edge calling down to the others. Fortunately, neither Calais nor Llyurylly'yl are practical jokers, so they don't sneak up on him. They tell him the others are still waiting to find out if we're welcome. Anton asks how Calais got up there. "I followed him." Anton repeats the question to Llyurylly'yl. "I travelled." Calais examines the door. It has the highest quality lock he's ever seen, but the magic spell that has been put on it to seal it is the most basic locking spell; the cheesiest locking spell I know of. The lock spell basically turns the lock into a lump of metal; you need to be able to disable the spell in order to pick the lock. Calais also inspects the knot Anton used to tie the rope to the door-knocker, and re-ties it more securely. Calais mentions the spell on the lock. Anton is startled that Calais could tell, until Calais reminds him about the detect-magic ring. Anton then checks for other magic, and finds the entire castle is a network of air spells. The archway has several spots that look like they unleash some form of magical destruction. He recognises the locking spell as being a type that has one of several locking words chosen by the caster, but he doesn't know the words. He also observes that the substantiveness of the castle is due to the moon, implying that we'd best finish our business here before the moon sets at dawn. Anton flies up to look for other openings or the like. There's an air wall preventing entrance. There are windows in the tower, but no lights or other signs of life. Meanwhile, Llyurylly'yl decides to walk around the base of the castle. Calais calls down to explain what we've found so far. Paris says if it's locked, we should leave it alone. That's enough to sway Calais, who was torn between looking for interesting stuff and being careful. He sits and watches as Anton composes a song about weary travelers looking for a place to spend the night, and the mighty mage who built the castle. Calais suggests mentioning the name of the mage Anton's talked about. When Anton works in the name Jarvon, there's a click. He pushes, and the door opens. He sees an entry hall, in which a triangular figure with bulbous shoulders is lighting the sconces. Unlike trolls, which have their pointy end on top, this one's point is at the bottom. It's about 4 feet tall and misty white, like a disturbance in the air. Anton recognises it as an air elemental. He heads in. Calais shouts down to the others that when Anton said the name of that air mage, the door opened for him. "He's heading in; I'm going to stick with him to try to keep him out of trouble." Paris climbs the rope while Rhori and Hobbes track the elf's path and Pyotr follows Rhori. As Calais follows Anton inside, he fails to notice that Paris's weight on the rope has pulled the door shut again. Anton and Calais go a ways into the castle, ignoring some side passages, and find a second air elemental carrying what looks like a covered tray of food. Food sounds good, so they follow it. Outside, the others try saying the name "Jarvon", but nothing happens. Anton and Calais come to a dining room. Two places are set: one at the head of the table, one in a subordinate position. An elemental is standing by each seat, and a third seems to have some wine. Calais tries walking to the latter to see if the elemental will pull out the chair. No. Anton says to let him try, since the door opened for him. He pulls out the chair and sits down. He tries lifting the cover from the food, but it feels like it would lift the whole plate. He checks; the cover is fastened to the plate by a spell apparently designed to keep the food warm. Anton and Calais talk it over. Maybe we both need to sit down? But Calais doesn't want to be so presumptuous take the head seat; at least Anton's an air mage. So Anton moves to the head of the table and sits there, while Calais sits in the other seat. As soon as they are both seated, the elementals reach over and remove the covers. A delicious aroma wafts up. The third elemental comes over with the wine. Another group of elementals enters and starts playing music. Anton and Calais give thanks to their host, and chow down. Paris feels a pleased sensation from Calais. She thinks harder, and finally remembers roughly what words she heard Anton work into his song just before the door opened. She says she's looking for Jarvon. The door clicks and they push it open. Hobbes is able to track the scent, first of Anton and Calais, and then of the dinner. Calais greets Paris and fills her in on what we found when we arrived. Anton tries asking the elementals if they can provide food for our companions. There's no response. He and Calais stand up, and the elementals clear the plates and start to float away. The wine steward and band likewise pack up and leave. We decide to leave a note to Jarvon thanking him for his hospitality, and then look around a bit to see what else we can find out. We ask the elf how big the castle is. He says it's about 90 by 90 meters. It's basically just the one level, plus the tower. We decide the tower is the most interesting place to look so we all head there. It's a long way up, and the first part is a spiral stair open to the air, which is rather unnerving. At the top is a landing with a door that Anton can see is covered with runes. As before, there are lots of fancy spells, with a very crude basic arcane lock spell. Anton again says that he's here to see Jarvon, the great air mage. Again there is a click. He pushes open the door and sees a room with a sort of man-shaped corridor through a heavily enchanted area. As he walks forward, studying the spells, Calais follows and notices a stick on the floor. It reminds him of the piece of wood from the giants' garden, and he recalls the giants saying that such a piece had been given to Jarvon. The stick is lying in the middle of a pentacle inscribed on the floor of the room, which Anton thinks is to protect against spells of earth. The candles around it have burned down, but might once have provided protection against fire. There are many runes, which he guesses protect against water and air. He hesitates to disturb the stick, but finally Rhori says in exasperation, "Either someone wants you dead, or..." Paris finishes the sentence: "Or someone wants you to have it." We wait long enough for Pyotr to cast his PD/ED blessing in case the castle disappears and we fall. Anton starts up his Flight spell. Finally, he picks up the stick. As he does, he (but not the others) can hear a voice. "It's about time you got here, you idiot apprentice! What took you so long?" Anton starts babbling. "I'm sorry sir! I didn't know you were waiting. I'm Anton the air mage and..." "Anton? What happened to Gillead?" Anton starts to explain how we came here and the door opened and the elementals served us dinner and... "Wait, stop. And Gillead wasn't here?" Anton continues to talk to the stick; we continue to hear only Anton's side, but easily guess that he must be hearing something we don't. The stick says it's such and such year of Prolerian's reign. We catch the name as Anton repeats it, and we remind him that Prolerian was the ruler in Pyotr's time. Indeed, the year the stick named is also the last year that Pyotr remembers. The stick continues to gripe. "Here I am casting the most complex spell of all time. And _he_ walks in. When one is going to make oneself immortal one doesn't want an accident to occur. That triple-damned Finnean leans over my shoulder and says 'Excuse me, may I take that?'" Apparently Finnean took a small blue stone, distracting Jarvon such that instead of the power of the stick coming into him, he got sucked into the stick. As Anton repeats the name Finnean, Calais perks up. He recognises it -- though he had heard it as Finnegan -- as being the name of a famous, um, locksmith. Apparently it was Finnean who put the minimal lock spells on the doors on his way out, either because he was better at evading such spells than at casting them, or as a further insult to Jarvon. Eventually, we point out to Anton that we can't hear Jarvon. Anton also determines that Jarvon can't see or hear the rest of us, though he can apparently see magical things, such as Paris's sword, Calais's rings, and the lion. Paris, a bit grumpily, suggests that Anton ask if Jarvon can feed the lion. (She figures it's not good to bring a starving lion back into civilisation.) Anton asks Jarvon if we can get food for the rest of the party. Rhori tells him to ask for grain for the horses, too. Jarvon has Anton take him down to the kitchen, where Jarvon instructs the elementals to serve up a full banquet. We also restock our provisions, and get some food for Alexis and the horses. (Calais probably had tucked away some leftovers from the original meal, but the matter becomes moot now.) Anton asks where the castle goes when it's not a full moon. It goes to the plane of air. That's where Jarvon gets the elementals. He's the keeper of the four winds. We conclude he's the human who took over the guardianship of the element of air when the last big Choice was made. He certainly looks like the Ace of Wands. (Pyotr considers his new-found Knowledge of Tarot and agrees.) Over time Anton fills Jarvon in on much of what's happened in the past thousand years, as we know it anyway. He finds Jarvon is sometimes slow to respond. (He's SPD 1, DEX 0.) Presumably at some point he introduces the rest of the party (invisible though we may be to Jarvon). Anton asks Jarvon if he knows where Tarn is. Yes, it's a great center of learning. It's a two day sail (by air boat, of course) northeast of Toulouse. There's some discussion about whether to head straight to Tarn from Tauban, but the direct route is very difficult terrain. Also, both Llyurylly'yl and Jarvon have been to Tarn only via Toulouse (Westmore), so it seems best to head there and let Anton make an air boat. We note that Tarn sounds like it's the place where William and Silverlocke first ran into the pauldron-creature (Umim or Thumin, I forget which) that was trying to sacrifice a baby. We get back to Westmore. We figure we don't have anything new to report, since we already sent a report back with Ewen and Mia about Tauban, but we do still go to the castle to return our horses. When the bureaucrats figure out who we are and how long ago we set out, they have us report to the Duke after all. Paris mentions the earlier report, and then tells how we continued from Tauban, following the quest of the Majors. She describes how we met Temperance, and how we trudged back through the winter weather. Duke Evan asks about the elf, and we introduce Llyurylly'yl. He asks about the mining town. He'd gotten reports that the entire town was abandoned, but when he sent people to check that turned out not to be the case. Paris explains it somehow. She does not tell about the bridge. She also does not physically describe Temperance except to say that she was strangely dressed. Paris says not everything Temperance said made a lot of sense. "Like what?" Like needing change; that we were growing too static. The Duke says that the coming of the orcs and such seemed like more than enough change for him. Paris agrees. She does remember to mention the town of orcs we passed en route to Brest, but that's so far away it's of little concern here. We ask what news there is of the past three months. The Duke he has bad news. It appears that Prince William is dead. Apparently he faked his death fighting the orcs, and then escaped into the lands east of the Red River, and Prince Louis found him fomenting rebellion, and paraded his head on a pike. This has hardened the lines between Louis and Martin. Prince Louis has declared himself King, and apparently the High Priest is willing to crown him, but cannot do so until he has the Sword of State, which Prince Martin still has. "It appears that Prince Louis was going to declare your entire Order renegade, but the High Priest convinced him not to. So he has paroled your Order on the provision that you go swear fealty to him as King, as soon as possible." Paris, still shocked by the news about William, asks where Louis is holding court. We're told it appears he has the bulk of his forces on the east side of the river, east of Pelier (but in Tara, not the Isles). Someone asks about Princess Carline. "I have not heard from the Princess, although 'Prince' Louis (the Duke subtly emphasises the title) has published the banns [i.e., announced an intent to marry and calling for any with objections to come forth] saying she shall be married to a duke in the far southmost islands." We express our condolences on that news. Anton asks about the Earl of Eastgate. "He commands the Kingdom Second Heavy Cavalry, which has moved to the south of the west side of things, where they are managing to keep the orcs down, but they don't seem to be participating on either side." Anton says there seemed to be some uncertainty as to their whereabouts. "Communications were sketchy for a while." We check and learn that there are still orcs hunkered down near Fort Carcassone, as well as near Jouet. We don't expect much trouble finding a modest sized boat. It's not the sort of thing that adventurers normally want, so the prices won't have gone crazy. It will take Anton (and Jarvon) a week to enchant it. Paris, who had indicated earlier that she had thought of something we might do while waiting, says she thought we might check the Baron duBois's area for a shard of Mirror. Also, Alexis should see if she can get the Duke's weaponsmith to repair the magic sword. [Do we need permission to go to Tarn, if that's where Pierre's brother died? At the very least, we'll want to check back over Pierre's story. Looking back at the 99-12-23 notes, it's not clear if it's the same location, but if it is, it's the late Prince William who made the promise to Pierre. And the creature somehow got Pierre to kill his brother, so we'll need to consider how to protect that sort of thing.]