Slight back in time: Alessandro talks semi-privately to William about the
possibility of joining the Astraean Order.  The Prince asks Sir Paris what
she thinks, and she says she thinks he'd make a fine addition to the Order.
William agrees, but adds that Alessandro will first have to answer a little
problem of justice that William has on one of the Isles.  Alessandro gulps
and blanches.  [Something to do with his background before he joined the
party.]  William asks Paris to get a badge made, or to check the Order hall
in the tower at Westmore.  He also asks if "the Chivar boy" (Jules) got his
sword, upon which Paris tells about the encounter with the bone dragon.  He
wishes Alessandro better luck getting his sword.

Mia digs up a patch of sod to bring along, so we'll be sure to have a blade
of grass available when we need it.  (We can fresh-cut it on arrival.)

Jarvon talks to Antwerp, er, Anton about the spell that Anton will need to
help him cast.  Apparently it will require that Anton learn the language of
air elementals, so Jarvon proceeds to teach it to him, along with some bits
about how explicit you have to be when ordering an air elemental to do
anything.  He mentions that his books are stored in the plane of air, and by
ordering elementals he's able to access them from there even as a stick.
Anton will be able to access the books the same way, using the elementals at
Jarvon's castle.

Jarvon teaches Anton as we fly, having caught an astral current headed back
toward Westmore and Jouet.  We observe the comet in the sky each night, and
Jarvon remarks on how it's unusual to find a current that goes such a long
ways with no intervening nodes.

We arrive over the Cave of Chaos at dawn on the fourth day.  The area is
surrounded by encampments of orcs, but none immediately around the cave
entrance, so we land unmolested.

Jarvon explains to Anton how to work the spell components.  He must place
the diamond on one end of the stick, bind it in place with the grass, etc.,
and be sure after that to use the other end of the stick when asking Jarvon
to cast lightning bolts and such until we're ready for the Maab Baal spell.
We prepare everything, and Jarvon is able to check that it's done properly
enough.

Rhori is first to drop into the hole; as he catches his balance, he sees two
orc guards.  Unlike our first visit back in chapter zero, this time the two
are awake and alert.  Rhori dispatches them before they can sound the alarm.
Calais drops in next, and he and Rhori start moving forward, two abreast.
Next is Anton and Alessandro, then Hobbes and Mia, and finally Pyotr and
Paris.

We proceed deeper into the cave.  We come to where we remember there being a
bigger orc guard, and there's one there this time as well.  He doesn't see
us coming, and Calais sneaks up and stuns him with a blow to the chest.
Rhori and Calais make a quick check of the area, and we pause to let Pyotr
and Mia both cast the plus-PD-and-ED blessing.

We reach the cavern where we originally found the Font of Chaos.  The wooden
walkways between pillars have been replaced with stone bridges.  There are
various groups of orcs atop the pillars, including the one where we rescued
Genelle, but there's no torture rack this time.

Calais uses the telescope for a closer look.  It seems like the orcs are
doing makework, carrying bags back and forth between pillars.  The stone
bridges seem to be forming a circle, with a maze of bridges leading inward
to a smaller circular area where the orcs seem to steer clear of the
pillars.  In the distance, directing activities, is a familiar winged form:
Umim.

The Font of Chaos seems to have moved deeper into the cave, at the center, a
couple hundred yards away.  We think that's where we'll find the Tower; in
particular, we figure that Maab Baal's presence is what keeps that area
clear of orcs.

Anton notices a lot of heat rising from the walls, and using his magic sight
he sees that the air is "angry"; he doesn't think anything could fly in it.
He talks to Jarvon, who confirms that we're trying to get to the inner
circle, where he'll have sight of the Tower and Maab Baal.

Pyotr casts the orange spell, and Calais passes out some bags so we'll have
something to carry like the other orcs have.  Both priests drop the PD/ED
blessing since it has a visible effect that might interfere with the orange
spell.

The first group of orcs challenges us.  "Who goes there!"  Calais grunts,
disspiritedly, "Just the usual."  "Anything for us?"  Calais checks his bag
and says no.  This exchange seems acceptable to the orcs.  We continue past.

With a bit of luck, we make it two-thirds of the way to the center before we
find ourselves forced to backtrack to find the path that continues inward.
We think we've got 4-5 bridges left to cross.  Pyotr warns us as the spell
is about to drop.  Rhori moves back toward Mia, and Paris, who had started
to move forward, moves back again when she sees Rhori headed back.  (But
doesn't say why.  Paris seems to be in a surly mood.)

As we return toward the orcs we most recently passed, the sergeant there
asks, "Why you come back?"  Calais says, "Forgot this," and tosses a bag at
their feet.  As the orcs all look down at it, we strike.  Hobbes shreds one
orc's arms, Alessandro hits the sergeant but fails to stun him, Calais stuns
another little one, and Anton hits a little one with a magic missile.  Rhori
lowers his shield and asks Mia to climb onto it.  Paris moves forward again,
this time drawing her sword, so she'll be able to sweep as her next action.

She sweeps against two orcs before they've had a chance to recover from
their surprise.  She blows the leg off the big one, and Alessandro finishes
it off.  The other one, who had been stunned by Calais, dies to Paris's
blow.  Calais stuns the one Anton shot.  Anton tries to shoot the orc who
had been playing dice (well, die) with the one Hobbes mauled, but misses as
that orc leaps back away from the lion.  The orc falls off the edge of the
pillar, and dips from sight, but then rises up again, buoyed by the strange
air currents, before being sucked down faster than it seems he should fall.
Paris finishes off the last orc, and we form up our ranks and move on, now
with Paris and her singing sword at the fore, and Rhori in the pack carrying
Mia.

The five orcs on the next pillar are ready for us, if you can call standing
and trembling "ready".  The sergeant pushes the smaller orcs forward onto
the walkway, and Paris sweeps the first two off in some number of pieces.
Calais stuns one of the others, and Paris then finishes off that one and its
companion.  The big orc turns and runs away, er, runs for reinforcements,
yeah, that's it.

We blow through the next pillar as well, but the one after that has several
orc sergeants grouped together.  Anton decides they're lined up well for a
lightning bolt, and fires it off, but does the minimum damage (2, armor
piercing, oo oo), so they lumber close enough for Paris to kill two of them.

Anton tries again, this time using Jarvon's lightning bolt (but not the
room-filling spell), and again does the minimum damage.  Paris continues to
mow through the orc sergeants, as a lone troll behind them stretches forward
and tries unsuccessfully to hit her.  Calais sighs with relief that the
troll didn't go for him, and stuns an orc.  Another orc steps up against
Paris and actually manages to do a stun point to her before she kills it and
advances against the troll, which Alessandro also pegs with a hefty
firebolt.  We finish off this batch and continue forward.

One more pillar like the previous one, and then we find ourselves pursued by
a large group of orcs as another group looks like it's trying to get in
front of us to cut us off.  Suddenly the group in front stops short of the
pillar they and we were approaching, leaping off their bridge to avoid the
pillar.  We realise this is because the pillar ahead of us is part of the
central area.  Indeed, with the orcs no longer blocking our view, we can now
see the base of the Tower, and Maab Baal appears, perhaps having been
invisible up till now, coming toward us.  The orcs behind us stop their
chase and begin chanting the demon's name.  As Baal comes forward, the fat
rolls up and down, occasionally dislodging a bit of partly consumed orc.  He
has an assortment of limbs, including arms, wings, and tentacles; one
tentacle brings up an enormous flail and places it into his hand.

Anton tells Jarvon it's that time, and per Jarvon's earlier instructions
starts to rub the stick with the patch of cat fur, as he incants the first
part of the spell.  The rubbing generates sparks, which coalesce to form an
air elemental.  Jarvon then tells Anton to load the stick into a crossbow
and to instruct the elemental to guide the stick to its target.  He adds,
"This may take a while, you may want to look for another way around."

As Anton fires the bolt in the general direction of the demon, Jarvon adds,
"I apologise, Anton, for having to mislead you.  Immortality isn't all it's
cracked up to be."  [I do like the fact that Jarvon finally got Anton's name
right.]  Anton realises, too late, Jarvon's true intent, and realises also
why Jarvon made a point of teaching Anton how to access his magic books.
Except for patch of fur to generate the air elemental, all the other spell
preparations were just a distraction.  (When Calais eventually learns this, 
he's irate.  "Do you know what that diamond was worth?!")

Guided by the elemental, the stick lands in amongst the rolls of fat.  Maab
Baal laughs, pulls out the stick, and breaks it in two.  But somehow he's
left with a whole stick.  So he breaks it again.  And it's still a stick.

Pyotr notices something strange when he blinks.  He closes his eyes, and
seems to see the calm cool room in his mother's place, with all the floating
symbols.  He sees his mother step forward and gesture, and two groups of
symbols move toward each other, and each of them gaining an extra symbol as
they do.

Baal crushes the stick to fragments, but somehow one fragment is the whole
stick.  He burns it to ash.  The largest piece of ash grows back into the
original stick.

In his vision of the Moon, Pyotr sees more symbols being drawn into both
sides of the conflict.  Then Mia and Pyotr see a figure in red, and time
stops for a moment.  "What are you doing?" demands the figure.  "We came
here to make the Choice," answers Mia.  "Are you ready?" asks the god.

The red figure continues, "He has built another doorway.  The only thing
that kept him from opening that doorway was my not being in the world.  When
the unkillable faces that which can kill anything, I will have to act.  That
will bring me into the world, and he will be able to enter the back door."
He concludes, angrily, "Do you really think you are ready?"  Mia and Pyotr
both say they are, and time starts again.

We run forward to the base of the Tower.  There's a pattern of card-shaped
spots on the door: three at the top, then two sets of five separated by a
carved slot in the shape of two crossed keys, and a row of nine at the
bottom.  Beneath each of the nine are some rows of smaller indentations.
There's also a pile of golden Tarot cards, and an assortment of lettered
tiles that fit into the smaller spaces.  One card is broken into three
pieces, as if it had been torn.

We fill in the slots with the Fool, Tower, and World at the top, two sets of
"Key" Majors arrayed to match the tug-of-war we saw on the altar in Westmore
(High Priestess, Emperor, Empress, Hierophant, Justice; then Magician,
Chariot, Hermit, Hanged Man, Strength), and eight of the gods (Devil,
Temperance, Sun, Wheel, Moon, Lovers, Star, Death).  We look, but there is
no card for Judgment.  (Calais insists it's not in his pocket.)  We also
sort out the letters and fill in the names of the gods; in a few cases the
number of spots or the available letters leads us to some small corrections,
such as Illiako for the Sun (Illiakin is the adjective used to describe his
elves; Illiako was the name of the Solar Dragon).  Again, we come up short
the four tiles needed for the red god's name.

Paris and Rhori produce their keys and apply them to the place marked with
crossed keys wall, and we pause, hoping Judgment will appear.  Pyotr and Mia
tells us about the "other door", and we argue a bit about how to proceed if
we meet the Hierophant (or anyone else) inside the Tower.  Paris is not yet
willing to agree there is enough evidence to convict him of any specific
crime.  Some of us are incredulous at this, but, to be fair, none of us are
able to offer anything remotely approaching proof.  We mostly figure we'll
work it out once we see / talk to / smack an axe into whomever we encounter.

Mia takes the opportunity to cast her spiffy new healing spell on Paris,
even though she's still not sure exactly what it does.  (Those danged chaos
gods!)  Paris does stop panting quite so hard, though.

Hobbes tells Rhori he won't be able to go inside, even though it'll be
dangerous, so he wait outside.  He says Rhori's been the best Companion a
lion could ever have, and that he'll understand if Rhori "chooses" not to
have a lion any more.

Pyotr takes one last glimpse of his mother's array of symbols.  He sees the
two sets of symbols, which had grown until each was a complete circle around
the room, glow red and fade away.  He sees Sarik move off to an alcove and
draw open a curtain.  Here in the cavern, where Baal has been trying
increasingly powerful attacks against the stick, we see an arm of fire reach
out and grasp both demon and stick.  The hand clenches, and disappears.
Baal and Jarvon are gone.

A man in red appears beside us, and a golden card appears with a clink,
along with four more letters: Kali.  "Well, I'm in the world.  I hope you're
ready."  We conduct a quick review of our understanding of the five facts
pertaining to each god, and quickly question Judgment about his role.  "I am
the god of inbetween.  I can choose inbetween, and where things go once they
arrive inbetween.  Which means I can undo anything.  It is why I am the god
of destruction."  He cannot undo destruction; he can undoes things that have
been made.

When we ask him who made the other door, he answers, "It matters not; he is
opening it now."  We hastily fit the last bits in, and the wall slides open
in two sections; the part bearing the Wheel slides to the left; the Tower
card slides to the right.

Kali warns, "Only Minors who have Understanding dare enter; the rules are
different inside."  Mia hesitates; what about her baby?  Kali looks at her.
"Ask you to unmake?"  She hastily shakes her head.  She decides the last
child of two priests was a Minor, so hers should be also.  Hopefully its
Understanding won't be, um, Key.

In we go.  We find a long, white room.  Along the left wall is a line of
windows, shaped like cards but four feet wide and proportionally tall.  In
the middle of the right wall is a crumpled body amid shards of Mirror.  On
the wall is a frame with the last bits of the Mirror, behind which are an
array of cards like the one we constructed to get in, except these cards are
in color, not golden.  The mages and priests somehow sense that their magic
won't work here.  Paris's sword no longer glows or sings; in here, it is
merely a very fine sword.

At the other end of the room is a man we all recognise -- but it's not the
Hierophant, it's the Fool.  However, he's being frog-marched by two burly
guards in church armor.  They haul him to one side as three banks of guards
form up to face us, wielding swords, halberds, and crossbows.  Behind them
enters, yes, the Hierophant.

Rhori says, "I don't think you all belong here."  The Hierophant smiles
graciously and replies, "I will allow you all to leave.  You have done very
well; thank you for bringing the red god into the world."  Paris, showing no
sign of departing, answers, "You're welcome.  Would you mind telling me some
history before you leave?"

"Ah, yes, thank you, Knight of Swords.  You have been a most faithful son,
er, daughter of the Church."  The Hierophant goes on the need for Order, and
how Sir Juda, the greatest captain of his time, followed his orders and came
here.  Rhori asks why he came alone, and is told the Rangers "weren't as
cooperative."

The Hierophant makes no bones about his own role in the matter, and finally
Paris has heard enough.  She addresses him and says, "I accuse you of
ordering the destruction of Torat and Tarot."  He replies, "Then I don't
dare let you leave here to make that charge outside."  Addressing his men,
he says, "Kill them."

Rhori breaks in and asks if we can make the Choice together.  Rhori adds,
"Understand is Key."  The Hierophant says, "Kill him first."  The battle is
on.

Some crossbows fire but miss.  The first two ranks of guards move forward in
good order, slowly, always keeping a reserved action.  Hoping to anger them
into into breaking ranks, Anton pulls out his lute and invents some new
lyrics to the bawdy pirate song he learned, featuring the Hierophant in
various creative and unnatural acts.

Rhori, Paris, and Alessandro manage to move into positions around the pile
of glass, and Calais slips in behind them to have a look at the broken
Mirror and the cards beyond it.  He sees the World card in three pieces on
the floor.  There is no glass on or under the torn pieces.  It looks like
any Mirror shards that landed on the World bits (or vice versa, given that
the Mirror was broken before the World was destroyed) fell into the real
world.  He tries to edge closer, but doesn't think he can reach the cards
withouts stepping on the Mirror bits, which seems like a bad idea.  It looks
like the bits need to be fitted vertically in the gap in the wall; no way
can he do that in the middle of combat.

The guards continue to advance slowly and carefully.  The fighters put up
their best defense, but continue to take wounds.  They can't hold out much
longer.

Calais figures maybe the World bits can be used to remove other things
besides shards from this room.  He reaches down and picks one up (hoping
this does not cause _him_ to leave).  As the battle continues nearby, he
considers trying to lob the World fragment at either the Hierophant or the
Hierophant's card, but figures the man is too far away and the card is too
risky a target; he could easily hit another card or a piece of the remaining
Mirror.  He settles for placing his sword point against the Hierophant card,
hoping to use that as some sort of threat.  The Hierophant notices and
laughs.  "I'm not here as THAT card, idiot!"  Calais is about to make a
retort about how he can perhaps do a lot of damage to the Hierophant's power
structure outside, but is interrupted by another exchange.

One of the guards, goaded by Anton's rude song, bursts out, "Stop that!  You
don't belong here."  Anton looks thoughtful for a moment, then points at the
guard and replies, "No, YOU don't belong here."  The guard says, in an
apparent non sequitur, "There is but one God."  There's a flash of white
light, and the guard disappears.

Paris, hearing the exchange but not seeing the result, adds, "There are nine
gods in the world."  One of the guys on Rhori (who had switched briefly to
offense and was thus a sitting duck) shouts "Blasphemer!" and turns to fight
Paris instead.  But he does not disappear.

The Hierophant, sounding a bit more concerned than before, adjusts his
orders.  "Kill them.  Kill them _quickly_!"

Paris, Rhori, and Alessandro are nearly down, but still holding out.  Anton
says, "Everybody sing along!"  He points at a guard headed his way.  "You do
not belong here."  The guard replies, "There is only one God," and vanishes.

A crossbowman tells Pyotr he doesn't belong, and shoots him.  The wound is
not mortal, nor does Pyotr disappear.  Others shout at Mia and Alessandro,
but they likewise remain.

Various of us start to get the idea, and guards begin to disappear.  Calais
banishes a guard who was fighting Rhori, which Paris finally notices, but
her helm keeps her from making out what it was Calais said to make it
happen.  She says to her opponent, "It is not blasphemy to tell the truth,"
as she swings and misses.

One halberdier shouts at Rhori, "You don't belong here."  Like Anton, Pyotr,
and Mia before him, Rhori suddenly hears a voice in his head, the voice of
the old crone, Dierdre.  "What is your understanding of the yellow god?"
Rhori stumbles through the set, struggling a bit before remembering that the
Sun "reveals the hidden."  The response of the church guards makes a lot
more sense now.  In due course, Calais finds himself asked about the white
god, and Paris about the blue god.

Anton tries telling the Hierophant he doesn't belong, but he smiles and
says, "Yes I do, but not right now."  As his guards continue to vanish, he
exits through his back door, pausing only to borrow a crossbow and fire a
bolt into the chest of the Fool.

We finish banishing the last of the guards.  Then Pyotr rushes forward to
try to paramedic the Fool as Mia works on Alessandro.  Eventually Pyotr says
he thinks the Fool will live.

With more time now to look around, we realise that the card-shaped windows
on the wall opposite the Mirror each contain one of the living Majors: the
ten Keys and the nine Gods.  They appear to be watching patiently, waiting
to see the results of our Choice.  Pyotr recognises the alcove he saw his
mother stepping into.

Calais asks to have the Mirror unlocked so he can take it off its hinges to
work on it.  Paris and Rhori no longer have their keys, and can't manifest
them since magic isn't working, but there are two depressions suitable for
thumbs.  As they place their thumbs there, they're asked their understanding
of the white and black gods, respectively.  Paris easily rattles off her
answers (no doubt aided by having recently sensed it echo through Calais's
head).  Rhori again stumbles, trying to remember how Nature breaks the
rules.  Eventually he gets it right, and the Mirror clicks open.  Calais
removes it and starts to fit the pieces into it.  There are still some gaps,
but the pieces seem to be flowing together a bit.

As he works on the Mirror, the Fool wakes up, with the immortal soliloquy,
"Ow."  We ask him how he got captured, and he says a bunch of guys just
jumped him; they somehow seemed to know where he'd be.  Calais remarks,
without looking up, that we know the Church has spells to tell them that
sort of thing.  The Fool also asks about his dog (a question we had posed to
the Hierophant before the fighting broke out) and before Rhori can shush him
Calais mentions that the Hierophant said something about throwing the poor
beast into the ocean in a sack.

The Fool eventually pauses and asks, "Didn't I already ask you a question?"
Indeed, way back when we first met him, he asked us his name, since he could
not remember it himself.  We try to figure out who he could be, and think
about what his role and abilities seem to be.  We observe that he's somehow
able to turn up anywhere, even when the door is locked.  This time Calais
does look up from his work, with an awed expression.  "Omigosh, Finnegan??"
He adds, "Oh, you're so lucky Jarvon's not here."

A look of shock comes over the Fool's face.  Shock and recognition.  He
starts to cry.  Eventually he pulls himself together enough to explain.

"I built this place.  Imagine 350 million people living in these lands."
We ask him what a "million" is.  He tries again, "Envision a village for
each person now alive, seventy people for every one."

He goes on.  "They'd learned much about the universe, including its final
end.  Eventually, the stars themselves would burn out and all would die.
I figured out how to change that.  I explained how the universe worked.
I predicted Tarot, and the way to keep the universe from dying.

"We built this place with the power station on the moon which went through
the wheel, all controlled from this tower.  This Tower has all of the rules
for the use of the power.  You've been to Calais, haven't you?  Calais is
on the border between two tessera, and shows what happened the night we
turned this on.  There's a dark side of people, and they turned into
monsters.  350 million became 350 people.  It's as if, of all the people
you know, five survived.

"We met, and found we needed a way to fool our subconscious not to call on
all of the power completely.  We used all the old symbols -- constella-
tions, cabala, tarot, and so forth -- to try to fool our minds.  And it
worked.  As long as people believed in them, they could only do what the
rules allowed.  We here in the tessera left it so we could change things.
The Minors were those who could control the beast at the back of the mind
long enough to make a choice to change the rules.  We knew we wouldn't get
it right the first time, but would need to leave a way to change things."

Someone asked about the other tessera.  "They survived by limiting their
use of the power in much the same way, although they used their own
legends.  To the east of here, they used a book called the Koran, and the
Arabian Nights.  Far to the west, across the ocean, they based it on their
local gods, such as a beast combining feathers and scales.  To the north of
that tessera, they tried not to use their legends, but opted instead for
rational control.  They all died, although a new group has moved in, with a
powerful Book as a shared legend.  They have built a great city on top of
huge stone pillars.  In other places, other legends have been used."

In the last Choice, the cards were not named the same.  There was a great
simplification as many of the constellations were retired.  The non-humans
(dragons) were also retired.  And one individual argued quite strongly that
there needed to be a balance, a high priest to balance the high priestess,
and inner and outer mysteries.  He was nominated to take it over, but
because of his nature he did not give up being a Minor.  So he remained the
Four of Pentacles, the Miser."

We ask if the Fool knows how the Miser intended things to be.  He knows a
little.  The Hierophant wanted a much more ordered system, with the church
as a religious peak to the secular world, and all subversive thought
banished.  "Rules of order, rigidly applied.  But there's a dark part to
people's minds, and it needs to be there.  That's why there are orcs.  If
there isn't an outlet for that dark side, you get Calais."  (The city, that
is.)

How do we make the Choice?  "You've opened the outer way; I can open the
inner way."  He opens the back of the compartment that holds the cards, and
shows us how we can make new cards by thinking about them.  (No artistic
skill required; whew!)  He says the Mirror will show us what the World will
look like based on any possible Choices we consider.

Pyotr asks him why he was the Fool, and why he couldn't remember anything.
It seems that happened at the previous Choice.  "I asked the last group if
they would allow me to forget until the next time the Choice was to be
made, so I could forget having destroyed 350 million people."  We realise
that Sir Juda killed only 5-10 million; he was a piker.  Paris turns pale.

Sir Juda in fact was killed by a shard of flying glass; his chestplate is
fine.  But he does have a badge, and an ornate sword.  Alessandro gathers
them up.  (The sword won't work for him, though, until he has his own key,
which requires that he meet Justice on his own terms.)

Anton asks how to separate the power of the Hierophant from the Four of
Pentacles.  Finnegan says, if we want to keep the card, that one of the
party can simply become the Hierophant.  We all look at Pyotr, recalling he
was explicitly trained to preserve the knowledge of the old rituals.  He
seems willing, though he reminds us of his low opinion of the White Church.
We hope he can rise to the challenge.  In any event, we can use the Mirror
to see how it would turn out.

We continue to question the Fool.  (Basically, this is an opportunity for
the players to get answers to any lingering questions about the campaign.)
Here are some assorted bits...

Dierdre is the voice of the Tower, and is the Fool's wife.

Calais asks him how he's able to get through any door, but it appears to
have something to do with Tower Power, so Calais probably can't learn it. :-(

Somewhere in here he explains superstring theory (as best he can to a bunch
of ignorant peasants :-), that there are four dimensions to the world you
know as Torat (three distance and one time), and similarly four orthogonal
dimensions for space and time in Tarot.  In Tarot, sometimes the ash and
fire will recombine to make a log; by connecting the two universes they can
balance out entropy and keep the stars burning.  There are nine dimensions,
and someone asks what the ninth is.  He replies the soul, or consciousness.
That is how the two, Tarot and Torat, are coupled together, and why people's
minds can control that power.  (He didn't get to this, but it's why Binah is
as important as he is, he is the one that actually reaches into people's
minds to get what is needed to balance entropy.)

Where did the gods come from?  They were nine of those who built important
parts of the Tower.  He rattles off the mundane names that they were known
by back in those days: "Lucky" Morgan, Gabriel Kelly (Gabriel is, of course,
the trumpeting angel on the Judgment card), Cora Strawn, Ilya Kuryakin (here
"by himself" :-), George Murphy, Prandinavian Sarikinasan, Ben Ah,
Twofeathers Jatala, Joseph Melchor.

At some point Finnegan mentions why one has to have suffered before one can
become a Minor.  "Because of the mistake we made when we turned this on.  We
didn't understand.  Those who are Minors are ... related to those who were
here the next day.  Those who could face the Beast at the back of the mind
and win, those who had lost much they cared about to the Tower."

What happened to the dwarves, and were the chunnel-bears really dwarves as
they said the Fool had told them?  He explains that "dwarves" is an acronym.
Then he explains what an acronym is.  "Dwarves" stands for "Dynamically
Wired Autonomous Repair and Verification Engineering Systems".  They keep a
lot of parts working right.  For the Hierophant to change the cards from
outside, he had to collect or destroy all of the decks that the Minors took
with them after the last Choice, replace them with the minor modifications
he wanted -- e.g., the keys on his card -- and have a long time to convince
people that the new cards were the right ones.  By confining the dwarves, he
could arrange for time to run differently in different areas.  In
particular, his area, the islands, had thousands of years, while on the
continent it was much less.  This is also why the islands were much more
developed, and easily conquered the still-savage peoples on the mainland.

[Here are some further questions that I thought of while editing the notes,
and that Pat (the Fool :-) has answered.]

What did happen to the guards who failed to show Understanding?  The Tower
eliminated them.  I.e., they were not merely ejected back into the world.

What is significance of the map in the dwarven city?  The city is where the
dwarves went just before Juda broke the Mirror.  All of the dwarf cities
were in great new caverns, which, after the World card was torn, were waaay
underwater.  This kept them from being able to do their work.  Careful
cartography, which the party couldn't do, was required to figure that out.
Claire and Pierre were trying to find a way to get near one of their
caverns, but were having, er, the devil's own time doing that.

What would've happened if we hadn't retrieved William's badge and sword?
This isn't something either the Fool or the Mirror could predict, but he
probably would have died for real in the battle at Marcy.

What the heck is the bone dragon?  As Cora Stran told us, there were three
dragons in the previous version of the Tarot:  Chronico (the Ouroboros
Dragon), Iliaco (the Solar Dragon), and Cosmico (the Dragon of Nature).
They were retired in the last Choice (though Iliaco returned as the Sun, in
human form).  Apparently the bone dragon was not content to remain retired.
Pat's not sure which of the two remaining dragons it is. :-)

Eventually we run out of questions for the Fool, and Calais has finished
repairing the Mirror as best he can.  There are still many fragments missing
-- apparently more than the three shards fell out into the world -- so there
will be gaps in the visions we see of the results of our possible choices.
The curtain closes on the campaign as we gather around the Mirror to discuss
the Choice.  Calais wants to add a duck to the Magician's card.  And someone
reminds us that Murphy asked that we remember him...