[Notes for the run of April 5, 2000.]

Pyotr checks on how the Rainbow Church is doing.  He finds it's very well
respected, back from when it healed the Princess while the White Church was
haggling to try to get something in return for its aid.  The occasional
resurrection has, of course, done nothing to hurt their reputation.

Calais, having as yet no special skill in bargaining, manages to find a boat
for what he thinks is a fair price: seven silvers.

In private, Paris tells the Duke about the bridge near Tauban, and also asks
for more details about Prince William's death.  The first death supposedly
happened against the orcs, falling in battle.  There was mourning and so
forth.  The real death happened, thinks the Duke, in the town of Marcy, down
the coast on the eastern side of the Red River.  The Prince had gone there
under cover, and Louis found him there, and accused him of fomenting revolt,
and had him executed for treason.  Evan hasn't heard of there being a public
trial, but the head was paraded around on a pike.  It must've been a month
or more ago.  It was shortly after that that Louis published the first of
the banns on the Princess.  No one has seen her since then; she was last
seen at the Council of Lords while it was convened in the city of Arles.

Louis's main headquarters are now in Avanon.  Prince Martin's are in Lemar;
there's a castle there on a mount.  The line between the two is drawn at
Andy, a town at a narrow spot where the mountains meet the valley.

Paris also tells the Duke about the Shard we found.  He asks to see it.
(Presumably at some point Calais shows it to him.  Taking it through the
castle's magic-suppressing entrance doesn't seem to have any lasting effect
on it.)

Duke Evan asks Paris what she will be doing next.  She says she had promised
the Prince she'd continue the quest of seeking out the Tarot, as it was the
best way to set the wrongs right that have been caused by the breaking of
the Mirror.  "I have every intention of keeping my word to my Prince," she
says.  The Duke replies, "It sounds like a worthy cause.  There are a few
here who were working for the Prince.  I have not been able to find other
jobs to suit them.  I'll, perhaps, send them to you."  "Thank you.  Were
there any more, to your knowledge, made to my Order?"  "Young Chivar."  "Do
you know the business he was sent out on?"  "He had first been sent to meet
the various of the Majors."  "Yes, of course."  "And then went east with the
last group that Tanner tried to sneak through the mountains.  So I haven't
heard from him since then, but I would not expect to."

Paris says, "I will happily see what I can do for any of Prince William's
people."  "It more what they can do for you, Sir Paris."  "Yes sir.  Of
course."

The Duke also remarks that Paris looks ill, and suggests she stay here a
while and rest up some.  She thanks him and says she'll keep his advice in
mind.  He asks if there's anything else.  She says no, and thanks him for
his time.

Pyotr does find one major change at the church.  The high priest? -- top
priest?  -- first priest people tend to talk to? -- anyway, he got married.
And to another priest.  Not that there's any rules against that, of course.
Or any rules at all, for the most part.

Pyotr makes it a point to read anything he can find on the floor.  He also
makes a personal copy of any parts that he thinks are worth studying on his
travels, since some crazy knight seems to have decided he should go with her
everywhere she goes.  Pyotr also sees Mia, and his practiced medical opinion
is that she's absolutely glowing.  [From meta-comments I gather that this
happy state appears to conflict with a prediction Mia got previously, but I
find no mention of it in the earlier notes, so I guess it wasn't public.]

Pyotr also spends a little time praying to see about maybe getting another
spell, though he doesn't currently have any cards to use toward making it
stick.  He helps a bit in showing how to decorate the church, and he manages
to construct a colored pinwheel and shows how it can be used as a focus.
Also, about a third of the acolytes, particularly the younger ones, pick up
his accent.  It seems to be the latest "cool fad".

A lot of the acolytes are mostly interested in adventure and treasure.
Pyotr observes that he hasn't managed to come up with much treasure, though
he has funded getting better equipment.  He says that sometimes there's
stuff that needs doing, to help the church or other people, and that
sometimes doing that is more important than personal wealth.  It's not clear
how much his opinion sways anyone.  Henri remarks that he's been happy to
get acolytes to swell the ranks even if their motivations aren't always the
best.

Somewhere along the line Pyotr fills in some of the other Rainbow Church
folks about the nine gods becoming seven, and the White and Black Churches
going off together.  He says that the black god was god of nature, which
doesn't sound inherently evil.  Of course, now, the Black Church is outlawed
here.  People here find it all very confusing.  Pyotr shrugs.  He also tells
of having spoken to the orange goddess, and some of what she said, like
going off to kick some butt.  Henri does advise him against telling the
White Church folk that they used to be White-and-Black.  Pyotr says he'd
figured that part out.

Calais checks in with Irolo, and finds Irolo's gotten some work queued up
for him.  He makes Calais practice again taking apart the cuckoo clock and
putting it together again, blindfolded.  Calais manages to get it together
with no missing parts, but it runs for a while and then binds.  Ah well,
time for some more practice.

We're all feeling malnourished and such (hence Duke Evan's remark to Paris
about her not looking well), so we decide to postpone the expedition to
Baron duBois's land.  Tramping about in a foot of snow in the middle of
winter seems like a poor choice of activity right now.  We settle for
hanging about in town and talking to various folks and practicing our
skills.  Alexis is definitely down with a cold.  Anton is busy with the
boat.  Rhori is trying to get Hobbes dry, and is seeking out information.

On her second day at the palace, on her way to talk to the padre, Paris is
approached by a young man with the olive-skinned look of someone from the
Isles.  He addresses her in a cheesy Italian accent. :-)  "Excuse-a me, Sir
Paris.  My name is Alessandro di Montepulciano.  I hear a lot about you.  Am
very impressed by you.  I, um, do favors for, ah, Prince William.  And he
tell me if he not here, go talk to the Duke.  And if the Duke not have time
for me, go find you.  So here I am!"  Paris asks, "How long were you with
Prince William?"  "Eight, nine months?"  "Lucky you!"  "Well, I, ah, don't-a
get to see him that much."  He sobers.  "I, uh, hear the news.  Which I
t'ink maybe leaves-a you as head of the Order, I not sure."  "Were you
intending to join the Order?"  "I no think so.  Is a very sad story.  I
thinka swords, uh, you canna kill enough orcs with a sword."  Paris notes
that Alessandro is, nevertheless, carrying a bastard sword.

Alessandro tells Paris his tale.  He lived with his uncle at his estate,
until they were attacked by orcs after the Change.  He killed many of the
orcs, but was too slow to stop them from killing his uncle and his family.
He dedicated his life to fighting the orcs, and came to Westmore to learn
how to fight them better.  Swords don't always reach far enough, so he
learned about fire.  Fire can reach an orc.

Paris asks Alessandro to meet her again after she talks to the padre, so she
can introduce him to her companions.  Then she goes off and finds the padre.
She asks him about the relationship of the powers that seem to be part of
her Order, to the Church.  The padre says he saw a little of what William
could do, though never after William got his sword.  It seems to him that
what Paris does, and can do, is given by God.  That seems clear from the
special effects involved, and from the good she does with it.  He notes that
it is far more active than what the Church does.  She says it's not of the
Church, though.  He agrees, but says there's some relationship between them.
Paris adds, "Perhaps that is one of the things in the long run that I must
understand."  The padre replies, "Understanding is good."  (The padre is
obviously not one of the Arcana.)

He says that most in the Church learn more as they spend more time and rise
more in the ranks.  Paris replies, "Prince William said something of the
like for my Order, but I did not learn more about it."  The padre says that
could be bad; _someone_ will have to learn about it.  She agrees, and thinks
perhaps Westmore is the place to do it.  She adds that she does not feel
obligated to turn her powers over to the Church for official investrigation
or instruction, and asks the padre if he feels there is any reason that she
should.  The padre looks around nervously.  "I think there is probably a
reason that God has chosen a more active path for you.  I would try to
listen to Him.  There are... well, I've said enough."  He wishes her luck,
and says "May God be with you."  "I think He usually is.  Thank you."

Paris brings Alessandro to Jouet Square to introduce him to the rest of the
party.  She also asks the party's opinion of an idea she had.  "It's
probably better if I wait until Jules comes back, but it came to me when
Alessandro asked who is head of my Order, that we might be able to speak
with Justice and find out what to do about losing Prince William."  She asks
Rhori [in Michael's absence, alas] what the Guardians of Nature are doing
without Silverlocke.  Rhori says Silverlocke is occupied with forming an
army to fight Louis.  She asks whether he's found another lion.  He doesn't
think that's possible, but that doesn't mean he can't be in the Order.

There ensues some discussion of what it would take for Martin to defeat
Louis, including the effects of magic augmenting armies.  Martin has mages
on his side, but Louis has lots of White priests.  Still, Paris says that's
not how she intends to spend her next few months.  She brings us back to the
original topic, soliciting our opinions about talking to Justice.

Alessandro says he's never seen Justice.  He's seen the High Priestess,
juggler (i.e., the Magician), and the Emperor and Empress.  He couldn't get
through the fences, of course, but he handed messages to them through the
bars.  Paris remarks that this implies they weren't hidden when he visited
them, as they were on our last visit.

We discuss how to spend our week in town.  We want to research to see if
there's more known about Tarn, and to see if its location matches up with
where Martin and William fought the thing sacrificing the baby.  [Meta: We
also check the notes as to who was present when Pierre told Prince William
about the thing that got him to kill his brother, and conclude that none of
us know about that.  And with William dead, there's nobody to tell us not to
go there.  And Pierre himself is travelling somewhere with Claire, so
there's no chance of us happening to hear about it now.]  We also want to
ask if any more books have disappeared (apparently not), to check the report
of the duBois cleanup, and to read what is said of the Devil.  Paris and
Alessandro will spend the week at this.

Pat filled in some of this at this point, sort of skipping ahead.  We can't
learn more about Pierre's monster because he and Claire are not in town.
The duBois tale doesn't mention a Shard, but describes a round portal to a
plane of earth; since the Shard we found was the same shape as the opening
the trolls were coming through, this implies that if there's a Shard at the
duBois castle, it's round, which seems unlikely.  As for the Devil, there
are lots of stories about him.  Any associating him with Nature?  The bad
things he does might be considered Human Nature, especially the stories
intended to scare young girls.

Paris eventually thinks to mention to Alessandro that he shouldn't cast his
spells too close to her.

Returning once again to the earlier question, Calais asks what she'd be
hoping to learn from Justice.  But Paris has by now concluded that she ought
to wait and talk to the other member of her Order first, i.e., Jules Chivar.
Mostly she's hoping to learn what to do about not having a head of the
Order.  After all, _her_ badge isn't gold, but Jules's might be now, for all
she knows.

The week passes, and Alessandro finds himself invited to accompany us on a
boat journey.  Llyurylly'yl also travels with us, leaving his horse with the
same people who tend to Paris's warhorse.  Alexis is still too ill to
travel.  She does get the Duke's armorer to repair the magic sword, and then
returns it to the party.  Calais ends up with it, and mentions that this
makes the elven broadsword available if anyone wants it use it.  (If not, it
will stay in his pack.)

Alessandro is confused by the sight of the boat sitting in Jouet Square, and
asks how we're going to get it down to the river.  In way of reply, Anton
introduces him to Jarvon, holding out a stick.  After we're all on board,
Anton places the stick in a holder mounted on the board, and launches into a
ditty about "A pirate's life for me!"  The boat lifts off.

Being Anton, he sets out by sailing the boat above the main thoroughfares,
skirting the palace to avoid bumping into anything dangerous.  Finally he
heads into the hills.  He can't take the most direct route, because the
boat's maximum altitude (above sea level) is limited by the source of the
wood.  Except for Jarvon's stick, the wood in this boat came from around
Westmore.  Near Westmore itself we can get maybe 1000 feet up.  But Tarn is
supposed to be near a stream in a valley, as opposed to being way up in the
mountains, so we should be able to reach it.

It turns out Anton doesn't _have_ to keep singing, though he does like the
song.  We zip along at 40" per turn, which is a pretty good clip.

After two days, with occasional stops for stretching our legs, we're
supposedly in the right general area.  Paris tries to juggle the information
from Temperance, Llyurylly'yl, and Jarvon, to find the right spot.  She
spots one hill that, under the snow, seems to have a carved stone, like part
of a wall that has fallen down.  We land to investigate it.

Jarvon, through Anton, tells about his previous trip to Tarn.  He went there
to research immortality.  The folks there said you could achieve immortality
through words, but it turned out they were being literal, referring to
storing people's writings.  He was looking for something a bit more
effective than that.  Anyway, he describes the layout.  There was a main
plaza, another plaza to the east, and southeast of that was the university.

As the cardboard Rhori and Hobbes start foraging for supper, the rest of us
examine the one stone Paris spotted.  It looks like it might've fallen to
its present location, so we clamber up a ways and look around some more.  We
find another stone.  As we examine it, Pyotr hears a child's voice some
distance away saying, "Greetings, Guardian of Nature, are those following
you bothering you?"  We all hear Rhori's reply, "No, they're with me."  We
see that he is looking down, and go over to see whom he's talking to.  It
looks like an elf, but it's only one-third the size of an elf.  It sees
Paris and says, "Greetings, Guardian of Man."  "Greetings, uh, I'm afraid
I don't know how to call you."  "I am Istaria."  "Greetings, Istaria."
Presently, several more pint-sized elves come out of the bushes.

We explain that we've come at the instruction of the goddess of journeys,
seeking one of her cups.  We believe it to be near the place known as Tarn.
They nod, but say they don't have the cup.  Do they know where Tarn is?
"Tarn was human place of learning."  Where is it now?  "It, um, isn't any
more.  Humans all left it."  Is this where they were?  "Were?  People are
here now.  You."  We try a few more tacks, but they seem to have even less
concept of time than regular-sized elves.

They invite us to their settlement, which is built in the trees, but on
a smaller scale, so when we stand on one level our heads poke up into the
next.  Still, it's sheltered, and warm.  They put on a feast, and sing
their little elven songs.  (Pat, thankfully, refrained.)  The night
passes uneventfully, and warmly.

Calais asks what they call themselves as a group, half expecting them to say
they are dwarves.  But no, they are elves.  They are the Illiako, or the
Illiakan elves.  Llyurylly'yl remembers seeing them the last time he was
here, and we confirm that that was when he visited Tarn, so this must indeed
be the place.

The next day, we return to where we found the stones.  We brush some of the
dust and dirt away and determine they are laid out as if part of the base of
a wall, eight feet thick.  Llyurylly'yl says there was a castle at Tarn with
a big wall, on the edge of a cliff.  But there's no cliff here, just the top
of a hill.  We try to follow along the wall, going north and south,
uncovering it here and there, and eventually find a corner, apparently the
southwest corner.  Having no surveyors handy, it takes us most of the day to
find what we think is the east plaza.  The next day it does NOT snow, and we
try to find the southeast corner of the plaza.

Jarvon recalls that the study rooms were on upper levels, but the books were
stored underground.  This matches what we've seen elsewhere (such as at
Pelier).  That means we need to find not just the right place, but also a
way inside.

The next day it snows, and we hole up in the elf village.

After five days here, we've uncovered enough of the university area to
identify walls and support pillars for the level that was probably the
reading rooms.  Calais points out one odd sort of dead end that might've
been a stairway, but we search there and don't find anything.

Since Parsinius left the cup here, Calais brings up the 32-16-8-etc. clue,
but we can't see how to apply that.  Alessandro suggests maybe the fountain
is important; since Parsinius was guardian of water that might make sense.
Calais excavates it a bit -- hey, how did he end up stuck with the shovel
again?? -- but finds nothing useful.

We consider the full text of the clue: 8 from 40, 7 and 9, 4 and 4, and 4
again.  The floor seems to be made out of large square tiles, which gives us
a scale for the map.  But the largest dimension of the map is only 30, so 32
is tough, and 40 (as in 8 from 40 to make 32) is right out.  Alessandro
scrapes at the floor to see if the tiles are distinctive; he can't make
anything out, but Calais is able to find traces of orange in one room's
tiles.  He checks another room and finds a purple tile in the corner.  The
tiles in the doorways seem plain.

We identify one wing jutting out from the main building, that's 10 by 10
and thus has a perimeter of 40, but cannot find anything about it that
corresponds to 8.

Eventually we concentrate on one room that's 4 by 11 with the corners
missing (due to plinths), figuring that's 40 tiles.  But what's the 8?  We
scrape away at a half dozen of the 40 tiles and find quite a mix of colors.
We think perhaps we're supposed to discount 8 (take them from the 40), then
discount 7 and 9 more, and so on, and eventually be left with just one.  So
we uncover all 40 tiles, and find 10 red, 8 orange, 6 yellow, 2 green, 9
blue, 4 indigo, 1 violet.  We can't figure out how to construct the 7 and 9
in any reasonable way, and the 10 red are just hopeless.  After a while (and
much meta-prodding) it occurs to us that there are 8 of us, if you include
Hobbes, so we try standing on the 8 orange tiles.  As we do, there's a
click, and the 8 tiles descend.  We figure the next puzzle should be easier
to figure out now that we've got the general idea how to interpret the
clues.  (I.e., one line per level.  The last levels may be tricky, though,
since we don't have the wording for the 2 and 1 lines.  Of course, we can
hope to have more players present to help brainstorm them.  We were running
rather light this time.)