[Notes for the run of September 6, 2000.] As dusk falls, we land outside of town in an area that Rhori feels sees no human traffic, and conceal the boat a bit just in case someone does show up. Then Calais disguises himself to look less like that famous wanted criminal, Paris, and heads into town to see what he can learn. He easily locates the house of the contact Irolo told him about and, though that person has long since passed on, his family is able to suggest a place where Calais might find some of the fellow's associates. In due course, he finds someone who knows the secret sign and countersign, and is ushered into a small, cluttered workshop. This Gearhead is a smaller man, perhaps a human/knowman mix? His name is Gustavo. Calais explains that he's interested in the church and its grounds, and Gustavo says that will be "tricky, the green ring is in the lurch." Calais recognises this as Thieves Cant, which he finds (a bit to his surprise) he has some knowledge of. Gustavo's form of Thieves Cant has a funny word order and includes more articles than Calais feels is normal (apparently the card from way back at the Font of Chaos actually gave him knowledge of Pyotr-era Thieves Cant), but he's able to follow it okay. Thieves Cant tends to use rhymes to conceal the important words, and Calais concludes that Gustavo is warning him that the Green King -- i.e., Louis -- is in the Church. Gustavo adds, "The green spanner's not the silver," and Calais has picked up enough of heraldry to know that Louis's banner is a crown on a green field, whereas Martin's adds an embattled symbol in silver. Calais presses for more information. Indeed, Louis has set up his main headquarters in the church; he maintains a fake HQ at a palace in town, with people coming and going to make it look used, but he's really holed up at the church. His elite guards are established inside the church building; the grounds are patrolled by units coming back from battle duty, one hundred troops at a time, with a change of guard every six hours, including a change at dawn. Louis has been bringing in many boxes off of boats, which Gustavo assumes are treasure of some sort. If we find out what it is, he and others would be interested to know. The troops are quite cautious about the goods being brought in. The people who bring the boxes merely stack them up at the entrance, and the guards then inspect their contents before bringing them in. The boxes aren't big enough to hide a person in (though Calais is limber enough he could manage it). The walls are only six feet high, really just ornamental. They'll be easy to climb, and nobody walks on them, though there are guard towers that are sometimes manned. The church itself is well lit, and some of the light spills onto the grounds, but overall the grounds have lots of shadows at night. Gustavo believes the High Priest is not in town; he sailed away quite some time ago. There is no gate per se in the wall, just an opening. The changing of the guard is a madhouse there, with guards, townspeople, camp followers, and so forth. The fresh troop of about 100 guys goes up, the lead person talks to the people at the gate, they discuss things for a minute or two, then the unit starts to march through, four abreast. There are alleys nearby outside where we could remain unseen, so Calais thinks we can set it up to let Pyotr walk slowly through the alleys to maintain the orange spell until the troops start to move through. Calais figures he might still have time to get to the church, plant the seed, get back to camp, and have us fly the boat around to the docks before dawn, but it would be cutting it close, and he'd rather have the opportunity to let the party discuss the implications of Louis's presence. So he heads back to camp and reports. Besides, it's almost a new moon, so the next night should be even darker. (Aside: In a pseudo-back-in-time, we establish that we left Cordelia's dog back in Westmore.) We discuss various alternatives, such as what if Calais is captured. Paris warns that, as when we rescued the Princess and Cordelia, the bad guys may have had a premonition of us coming. Not much we can do about that. Pyotr and Mia conduct a prayer session to pray to Hope to help us. We rest up through the next day in anticipation of a busy night. That evening, as the sun is setting, we see an enormous comet. It'll be setting by the time Calais needs it to be dark, but it does look like perhaps Hope is taking a hand. We drop Calais off in the water, and he swims up silently. He wrings out his clothes so he's not dripping excessively, and takes a swig of wine to combat the chill. Climbing over, he hides next to the wall, seeking a shadow in which he can work to plant the seeds. Looking around, he sees lanterns, and scattered camps of men; there's not a lot of contiguous darkness. He also notes some portable horse-traps near the gateway, that can be carried over to block invaders from entering -- or to keep them from escaping. Alas, looking at the ground, Calais finds it covered with flagstones, fitted closely together. It appears that, as in Pelier, there has been "much work of earth and stone" applied here. He tries to muffle the sound of chipping a hole in the flagstone, but a sharp-eared guard hears him and he has to move away before the light hits him. The guard motions for more guards to help him look around, and Calais clambers back over the wall and exfiltrates. Behind him, he hears a guard remarking on the water where Calais had been; they seem to conclude that the noise was a wave that crested over the wall. Still, it doesn't seem useful to try a second time. Calais rejoins the party and reports his failure. We abort to plan B: use axes to blow out a flagstone and plant the seed when we're all there. So, shortly before dawn, a small boat skims across the water and lands some distance from White Horse Point, and a group of fishermen gets out and wanders up and down various alleys while one splits off and watches the gate. Hobbes goes with Calais, invisible; Calais can pat him to signal the others that it's time to move forward and join the mass of guards. The discussion at the entryway concludes, and the troops start to move. We fall in behind them. The guys we're following definitely look like veterans, judging from how they carry themselves and the size of their shoulders. They're walking a bit like they're shellacked -- drunk, wounded, who knows? On either side are other guards watching "our" troop march in, and as Gustavo said there are also assorted townsfolk and others milling about nearby. As we approach the gateway, we realise that one guard there is counting, and as we get to the gate he looks confused and shouts, "Stop! Stop them!" Another, in a good island accent, asks what'sa goin' on? Trying to force our way in among the other soldiers, Paris keeps pushing forward, catching the soldier in front of her off guard. In the confusion, the troop's banner falls briefly out of sight. We try to mix forward, but the soldier ahead of Mia looks at her and asks what unit she's in; he says he knows everyone in this unit. She stammers but has no coherent reply. Rhori moves up to try to distract the fellow. Suddenly, scanning the crowd, Anton notices a woman pull back the hood on her cloak, and he recognises her as the old crone that we saw way back in the root cellar in Jouet. She looks at him and says, "Ah, good, you might still make it if you hurry." Then she puts one hand on a soldier who had been standing guard and says, "Time to come with me, dear." The banner comes back up, but now it includes a patch of silver above the crown: it's Martin's banner. Several of the guards who were on either side of the new arrivals fall with swords through their necks as the milling crowd breaks into violence. From somewhere in front of us, a horn sounds. Paris tells Pyotr to drop the spell, and he does so. The guards we were arriving with turn and charge the gatekeeping guards. Several of Louis's troops go down, but Martin's men stop short of attacking us as the spell goes down and they recognise rainbow robes, badges, etc. One of them looks sharply at Alessandro, who says "I'm-a with Sir Paris." That seems to satisfy the fellow. Hobbes, whom Rhori had told to wait outside the wall, remarks that there's a lot of ships in the harbor. Apparently the pirate fleet is here. We guess that it's carrying the Kingdom Second Heavy Cavalry. Paris talks to one soldier who's issuing orders. She indicates the western wall and says, "My group has a mission; we need to be over there." He looks non-plussed. She adds, "Prince Martin knows my mission." He decides he has more important things to deal with, and shrugs. Another unit approaches up the road, bearing Martin's banner, as we head for the west wall. It's not a key spot, so Martin's men haven't secured it. There are six bad buys there, including two with crossbows. Rhori runs forward, trying to give Mia a bit of cover. Calais gives her some more cover, and suggests to Anton that he try a Flash. A crossbow bolt glances off Rhori's shield. As Pyotr's dex-point comes up, he tells Paris, "Go, go, go!" She moves forward, and he follows behind. Anton casts his "mace" (flash) spell, but it goes wide and long. Mia decides there's not enough dirt to use her Mud spell. Anton maces again, this time catching the back row of four, including both crossbowmen, though the one who was cranking his bow continues to do so while blinded. We all break into non-combat running for a phase to close the gap (except for Mia, who's too pregnant to have a non-combat move). Hobbes tries to leap over the wall to join us, but fails, much to his embarrassment and confusion. (He asks Rhori, "Where'd the church go?") He makes it over on his second try, and starts eviscerating the enemy. Alessandro takes a crossbow bolt in the leg, for only slight damage. Rhori and Paris mow through the fighters, with some aid from the others. Anton's been holding back with Mia, looking around for other trouble. He spots the masts of the ships arriving outside. Soon after, he spots someone running toward us from Martin's men. He keeps an eye on him as we continue to mop up the guards. As the last one falls, we look around to check the direction of false dawn, pick a spot, then pick the spot. The flagstone shatters, we plant some of the seeds, and dump some non-Moon water on them. The runner comes up and says, "Sir Paris, Rhori Miller, Prince Martin wants to talk to you." They hesitate, worried about missing the Sun, and the runner adds that it's urgent. We don't yet see the sun over the wall, so it's at least a couple minutes before its light will strike the ground here. They jog over to Martin. The rest of us stay near the seeds, and near Mia. Pyotr and Mia get off a good prayer to the Sun. Martin asks them what we're doing here, what's Louis got here? Paris says she's following the quest, and that Louis has boxes here, but we don't know what's in them. Just then, the church doors open, and Paris sees Louis's elite troops lined up to face Martin's elite troops. But before anyone can move, there's the sound of a gong, and a shell of white magic comes out from the church, doing 50 stun energy to everyone but Paris. This knocks out almost everybody on both sides. The wave continues to expand out into the city. Another gong, and it happens again. Paris sees a line of eight church guards still standing. Behind them is Prince Louis. Behind him someone in church vestments is standing by a gong just like the one the Devil used, except this one is bears a right-side-up pentacle. The priest is the same one Calais saw at the island castle, but of course he's not here to mention that. Louis addresses Paris. "Swear to me now, or die." She retorts, "I swear to no man who can't be a good lord to his people." He turns to the man at the gong. "I told you. Read it." Then he tells the guards, "Go get the usurper." Three guards break off to come toward Paris, one with sword and shield, the other two following slightly behind with halberds. As the man in vestments (same one from Carline's rescue) unrolls a scroll and starts to intone the words of an excommunication order, Paris raises her sword and cries, "Lord God of the Astraean Guard, protect me from those who will not protect their people." The guards pause, not so much because of her prayer, but merely waiting for her defenses to be stripped before they attack. As the priest continues to read, Paris sees coming up behind him a figure in a black half-hood. It looks like the Pirate Silver. He has a bastard sword slung behind him, and another sword raised. He strikes the priest a mighty blow, downing him and carrying through into the supports for the gong, which collapse in a small explosion. The guards turn to see what's happened, and Paris takes advantage of their distracting to swing at the one with the sword. His shield is out of position, so she manages to crit him in the chest. This stuns him, and she follows it up by beheading him. Louis addresses the newcomer. "Who the hell are _you_?!" He replies, "My shipmates call me John Silver, but I was born William of Argent." "The hell you are. I have his head on my desk." In way of response, Silver draws the bastard sword, and there is a heavenly chorus as it glows white. Paris goes into a defensive posture and tells the two halberdiers, "Surrender or die." Meanwhile, Silver walks toward Louis, pulling off his mask and wrapping it around his arm as an improvised shield. In his best oratory voice, he intones, "I charge you with the murder of William of Argent, fratricide, usurpation of the Council of Lords...." The litany continues as Louis tells the guards, "Kill the usurper. Kill them all." One of the halberdiers swings at Paris but misses. The other drops his weapon, a fortuitous fumble that could be taken as a surrender. Paris swings back at the one who attacked, critting in the arm. He won't be swinging the halberd again for a while. Martin and Rhori are awake by now. Martin looks around and mutters, "Damn." He tries shaking someone nearby, then tells Rhori, "There are priests casting heals up on the roof. Get up there fast." William and Louis close and start to fight. William finishes his accusations and concludes, "...and I find you guilty." His sword starts to glow blue. Rhori asks Martin what he's supposed to do with the priests when he gets there. "I hear prayers. Louis must've had priests up there to revive his archers. They'll butcher everyone in the courtyard." Rhori heads over to a climbable spot to get to the roof. The guy who fumbled his halberd follows up by fumbling his morale check as well, and bolts. Paris waits to hold the door against the other guards trying to get outside to fight Martin. One guard moves toward Louis and looks uncertain what to do. The other four head toward Paris. As they approach, Paris finishes off the first halberdier. The four close, two swordsmen and two more halberds. Three of them hit, and she fails to block, but she gets lucky and none of them do a lot of damage. She's not even stunned. She switches to defense, swinging anyway, but missing. One sword hits in the chest, again failing to stun her, and a halberd dinks off her leg. She swings again, shattering one swordsman's shield. By now, Rhori's found some stairs and made it onto the roof. He sees three priests chanting, and some more over by a siege apparatus. And he hears someone arguing, "I can't shoot that one, she's pregnant." He heads that way. From behind Paris comes a voice. "Thank you, Sir Paris. I'll take it from here." There's a green glow, and the sound of a thousand angry horsemen. She shifts aside to make room for Martin. Three of her four opponents drop their weapons. The other screams, "No!" and starts to charge Martin. Paris's sword glows blue and she hears a voice, "That one." Recognising this as her ability to detect evil, she swings at the man and crits; it seems he's not merely evil, but has just Fallen, and her sword's really really good against Fell... Down he goes. As it's getting late, we gloss over some of the details. Rhori finds the siege engine was set up to fill the courtyard with a deadly gas. There were also many racks of loaded crossbows, and the archers appear to have been targeting Martin's priests first. The one who refused to shoot Mia is allowed to surrender to Rhori; the one who took the crossbow from him to try to do the job becomes an unwilling participant in Rhori's presence attack. (Splat.) Paris is dismayed to have to tell William she's on the quest and can't stay to hear his story. She goes outside as Rhori comes back down, and they find an extra civilian seems to have wandered into the courtyard: a little kid who's watching the sunflower grow. Rhori asks him if he'd like a horse and a flag. "Oo, that would be cool." We did bring a flag for him; the horses should be coming shortly. The child asks each of us what we want to know. Mia says, "Everything." "But it's such a small sunflower." (Despite our having planted several seeds, only one plant is growing.) He waits, but Mia doesn't immediately ask a different question. He continues to ask the others what we want to know. Anton, still a bit confused, asks, "What the heck is going on?" Paris asks, "How to get past Maab Baal into the Tower to make the Choice." Rhori asks for the name of the white god, and how he breaks the rules. "Such a small flower," says the child. Rhori settles for just the name. Calais asks the Sun his sphere and limitations; when that turns out to be too much, Calais settles for how the Sun breaks the rules (as the blue goddess would put it, he adds). Mia tries asking how the black god breaks the rules, but she's told she already asked something. Apparently she didn't correct it in time. So Alessandro then asks it instead. Pyotr talks briefly to Paris, then asks, "Wish to know path to Judgment, red god." The Sun frowns, saying there's no such place. Pyotr tries again, "How to meet him, speak to him, bring him into world." As we ask our last question, the child runs off, waving the flag happily. Looking at the sunflower, we see several of the leaves have markings, that turn out to be writing. We pick the leaves, and try to match them up to our questions. "Undoing the work of man" must be how the black god breaks the rules. "Make him make judgment" is how to meet the red god. "Jusef Melkor" is the white god's name. (But, as with the black god, we expect that the white god is more properly addressed by including his title, Dubious Jusef Melkor.) "By revealing the hidden" is how yellow breaks the rules. "Understanding is Key" is certainly the answer to everything. :-) "You are gaining understanding" must be "what the heck is going on". Calais's leaf says, "Ask Justinias," which puzzles him until he notices Anton touching Jarvon's stick to the stem of the sunflower. Apparently Jarvon asked a question also, and as the only question of ours remaining is how to get past Maab Baal, it appears that Jarvon is the key to that. Indeed, Jarvon asked the Sun how to defeat Maab Baal. He asks Anton, "Can you find a crossbow?" No problem. "We will also need a long hair from a virgin, a chip of a diamond, some saliva from a pregnant woman, a newcut blade of grass not cut with a bladed instrument, and a patch of cat fur an inch on a side." All except the diamond seem readily available. Anton does check whether a lion's fur will do for the last item, and Jarvon asks in his usual testy way, "A lion _is_ a cat, is it not, Anvil?" The runner is back, saying "Princes William and Martin would like to speak to you." Most of us aren't up on the news, and ask, "Princes _who_??" "Yes, William appears to have been Silver," explains Paris. William smiles as we come up. He's still holding the glowing sword. "Well done, Sir Paris." He says they'll be leaving soon; they don't have the force to hold the town. He checks that we have our own transportation out. Anton, hoping that word will get around and pique Eastgate's interest, manages to mention that he can make a much bigger flying ship. We ask what became of Louis. "Prince Louis is dead. I have rendered judgment on him." We ask if this means the war is over? No, says William, there is still a large force near Nice Place. Their loyalty will be to the so-called Queen Katherine. The battle will take place in the Isles and will be particularly bloody. So whose head _is_ on Louis's desk? "Oh, mine. I owe a great debt to Pierre." Martin interjects that he figured they'd give Pierre the land around each of the places the LTV comes up. William agrees, and suggests making Pierre a Count. With further questioning we determine that they found the Stone of Cologne, and Pierre, who has had access to Mortimer's books for quite a while, figured out how to use the Stone to make a flesh duplicate of William. It seems it was safe to do so as long as one or the other of the bodies died within 24 hours, which it did. William asks about the gong, and Paris explains we saw a similar one with the black god. Martin and William banter a bit about what this will mean to the succession. William grins, saying, "The Council of Lords will never accept as King someone who's guilty of fratricide." We figure out they're planning to get Carline married (to Evan) so she'll be a more acceptable heir to the throne. Pyotr says, "Know that you leave soon. If victorious, know that you should come back here, this should all be garden." We explain about replanting the Garden of the Sun, and give them the remaining seeds. Mia offers to perform last rites for Louis, but William says if Louis is to get last rites, it should be for the Church he believed in so strongly. We ask the Princes if either has a small diamond, but they seem to be travelling light. Eventually, they grant us leave to go. Calais finds he's ended up with the excommunication scroll. He checks the signature: Hierophantus Cosimo Clemente. Apparently it required the top man himself to authorise excommunicating Paris. Calais remembers Paris has previously asked for a copy of the Hierophant's signature, and shows her the scroll. She compares it to her sword, which is inscribed with the signatures of all the high nobles of Queen Branwen's time, including the then High Priest. The signatures clearly match. Anton goes, "I knew it!" Paris observes, "Anyone can fall." Pyotr says, "Few choose to jump." Pyotr wonders how to make judgment judge. Jarvon says he thinks he knows that. It's part of what we'll accomplish with the spell for defeating Maab Baal. We take a few crossbows and several bolts. The grass will come later so it'll be fresh. Calais returns to his contact in the city and tells him what was in the boxes (crossbows, pieces for the ballistas, etc.). That buys enough good will that he's able to exchange some gold for a diamond. We also come away with three cards apiece, just 'cuz. Paris uses hers to buy off a psych lim that might affect her Choice. Mia gives two to Anton as repayment for a spiffy new healing spell that she hopes to actually get the details of some day. :-)