(Note: there were a few game logs before this sent to local players that I can resend to anyone else interested upon request.) Retcon: When fighting their way to the lab, the Pictsies encountered someone using magic and fighting their way to the lab. The Pictsies discuss things with Tara, and she is treated with the respect due to a hag. Retcon: A fourth Johnny clone was created to work with Professor Eagleton on creating a dragon (that can hunt) made out of Fringe crystal. They have the shape downpat, but the trick is adding dragonish qualities. Back note: When Osric's body was killed by Rainbow, neither Princess Chandra nor Ilk could snag his soul because it had already gone to the Serpent. Speculation: Ilk believes that the reality engine was tapping into the energy created by Shadow itself, and notes that it only reappeared as a threat after Shadow reformed. Ilk checks to see if the new use of the reality engine has damaged shadow, but finds that shadow is still settling and in flux without fixed form or volume. Ilk knows that the last thing that Mikail was working on was time manipulation, so that would explain who created the minion-protection in Dalkantyr. It is a puzzlement that he is reported to have access codes without rescuing his minions, so it it presumed he lost access or lost time manipulation at some point. (Ilk recalls finking Mikail out to Melk, the Time Lord.) Johnny@Remote checks for Llewella's processes and monitors for login attempts. There was one login attempt, it failed, and there are no Llewella processes active. Carolan trumps Cagliostro for what to do about Llewella. Cagliostro checks with Princess Chandra - Llewella is wanted alive, because one should get permission from the Dworkins before doing it. Cagliostro mentions to Carolan that there is precedent for blinding. Cagliostro emphatically but politely denies to Princess Chandra that Llewella was ever in his custody. Carolan tries to cosh Llewella to ensure she stays unconscious, and ends up denting his pommel. Discussion ensues, and Princess Chandra suggests that Llewella may be using blucite as armor. Carolan tosses a Fringe crystal at the back of Llewella's head, and Tara protects him from larger-than-expected explosion shards. Carolan is now successfull in giving Llewella a good conk on the head. He also notes that Llewella is now radiating power, but can't think of anything to do about it. Carolan conjures a point of heat to blind her, but is blocked just before her eyes. He uses a second crystal to blow out this armor, and the reflective shield that Tara provides also fixes the blinding. Cagliostro doesn't want Llewella passing through mental contact with him, so he provides coordinates to Carolan for a magical gate back to the new Shadow assembly point. Carolan tries to create a gate, and doesn't have the power. Johnny@Remote creates a power tap from the reality engine to Carolan that Carolan can use for the gate. Carolan creates a gate back. (cat /dev/reality | grep 'open gate' > /person/carolan) Llewella is passed through the gate and Cagliostro makes some basic patches, then announces that he is pleased to return Llewella to Princess Chandra's custody. Llewella still needs a technician to fix her bleeding, but she will survive for about a day. Cagliostro recommends Simon as a competent technician. Princess Chandra says that she'll get to that, but won't bother waking him up if there's no hurry. Princess Chandra inquires whether Llewella is suffering, but as she's unconscious the answer seems to be 'no'. Johnny gets warning messages from the computer: 'Warning: incursion imminent', 'Large ally of Llewella', 'Inbound: lab location'. The computer recommends Defense Protocol 15. The group has recently survived Defense Protocol 6. Johnny (as Julian) is not cleared for any information about Defense Protocol 15. Kintani senses something he identifies as a Black Council member incoming. People exeunt through the gate, army first. Kintani stays behind in case they're seeking him, not the lab. Johnny@Local logs out and exits, Johnny@Remote locks the terminal. Kintani sweeps his wing and knocks the paralyzed Ifrit (previously stacked like cordwood in a lab corner) through the magical gate. Jean-in-the-box stays there, stoned and presumably floating in Eric blood. Carolan steps through the gate, shutting it down and erasing traces behind it, using Cagliostro's suggested techniques. Carolan drops the Trump connection to Cagliostro after stepping through. Kintani sees three of the Black Council members flying through the Sea of Chance. The promontory blucites itself. The Black Council members smack into the promontory at speed. Kintani golf claps, then passes the image along the dragon channel. Elsewhere, Princess Chandra laughs. Princess Chandra asks Ilk for a viewscreen, and he displays the image of black council members impacting onto the promontory. They now seem to be attacking the blucite. Cagliostro starts working on a requirements document with Johnny1 and Johnny2 with the purpose of rewriting Llewella's virus and taking superuser access over the reality engine. Johnny1 is still logged in and gets a warning of an attempted vandalization of the local terminal. He looks for changes, can't find any, but does see a new process attempting to physically defend the local terminal. Johnny1 attempts to shutdown and restart the video, and can shut it down but cannot restart it. One of the council rips something solid from the Sea of Chance and throws it at Kintani, who dodges easily. This is the only indication that they perceive him at all. The computer recommends initiating the next Gwen protocol - Johnny1 asks who Gwen is, so Princess Chandra suggests that he suggest the next Gwen protocol would be a -bad- idea. Tara introduces herself (only by name) to Cagliostro, Mistress Janice, and various people around. Ilk talks with Princess Chandra about the previous soul explorations, including the presence of a scarab beetle with Julian's soul trying to deliver it to Johnny. There is the potential of more soul backups there. Princess Chandra agrees that this is why she suggested that people not die there. Princess Chandra steps aside, summons one of Shiryu's apprentices, and asks Ilk to transport this nice lady to Kintani - inside Kintani, since Kintani is in the Sea. Ilk easily finds his Logrus. Kintani is uncomfortable but now has a passenger. Kintani goes off with his passenger to the Great Kraken Forest. Johnny1 asks the computer for a record of powers used in vandalization attempts - it seems to match up to the powers used in the most recent fight. The entries are not time stamped, and Johnny1 cannot find the original source of the data. The most recent vadalization attempt was: brute force. After a brief discussion, the Pictsies are suspected. Johnny1 tells the computer to synthesize single malt whisky in a bucket next to the terminal. This causes the brute force attack to stop. Since the Feegles were surviving defense six, it is decided to leave the defenses up. Johnny1 looks for other enemies of the machine logged in, but there are non that he can see. Ilk asks for checks of some of the old files - neither Jean's files ("Rainbow??? Leave alone!!!") nor Ilk's files ("Mostly harmless".) have been updated. Kintani looks at how to use a kraken as a weapon while the gardener gives it last rites. Kintani requests weapon advice from Marial. Ilk arranges a connection to Marial for Kintani, Marial says that it seems like a terrible idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which that she's standing on the Serpent's head. Kintani ponders how to use kraken power as a weapon, and remembers that the Great Kraken Forest is born from tortured seeds. The forest was created from a kraken being tortured to produce seeds. Ilk thinks of ways to use the seeds as weapons, but realizes it is totally against anything that Shiryu would ever stand for. Ilk tells Kintani anyway. Cagliostro pokes around with the Ifrit - their air has solidified. He thinks that a transfusion is probably the best way to fix this. He creates the technical equivalent of a bicycle pump and starts making incisions and fixing Ifrit. Eagleton mad scientists. Kintani asks that a Creationist be sent to help Eagleton process dragon poop to learn the essence of dragonish. However, none of the guilds have been re-established. Kintani sends a note through to the creationist he knows at Mandor's ways, playing poker, via Bevan. Tara wants to kick Llewella so hard she can't ever breed again. Carolan stops her and brings her over to Princess Chandra, who suggests asking Cagliostro whether Llewella would survive being kicked in the goolies so hard she'd never breed again. Cagliostro is consulted, and recommends the old icepick to the ovaries. He provides an icepick, a sharpie, and instructions. (Minor retcon: the sharpie would need to leave a thick enough trail that it could be found a la Braille, since Llewella is blind.) Tara admits to being Llewella's child. Tara is more than slightly bitter. Mistress Janice may suggest an appropriate tea party. Ilk checks Tara - there are no blocked areas, and he can't see any evidence of Pattern or obvious compromises. While he's at it, Ilk runs his Toram-sucker around anywhere and checks for hooks. He finds neither Toram nor hooks. Llewella has anti-hook defenses. Llewella is spayed. Carolan wants those ten minutes back. Tara is very clinical about the entire process, and very very bitter about Llewella. Ilk suggests stripping off the rest of the blucite shield. Llewella is saturated with Pattern. Ilk looks for people who have Pattern and might be able to drain her: there are multiple pattern users (Janus, Gil, Calla, Random) but no esotericists. He realizes that Brandt is a redhead and an esotericist, but that draining pattern from Llewella is a hard problem. Zorro and Natasha are also both around, since the army is still milling about. Al-nasir looks quite injured but is still moving around. Elsewhere in the crystal shadow in the Badgerverse, Silver Lyra and REN are both keeping an eye on crazy Dworkin. Ilk marks another hideyhole off his safe list. Ilk checks again for Ingold, and still can't find him. All of the Amberites (including Cagliostro and Jean) stop for a moment and look around. (It also includes Darkstar and all the Johnnys, as well as Kintani.) The message is from Auricle: "The Pattern is mine. It is under control. Everything is fine." Tate Trumps Caelin to talk to him about Auricle's messsage, after Caelin fails to block him. Caelin madly tries to get out of the connection, and agrees to host a family party. Caelin successfully blocks a second connection, and a gentleman later delivers a trump of Flora. Caelin confirms the party and the site of House Moonlight for it. A short time later, a gentleman in Flora's livery starts handing out invitations to a party in precedence order. The order is: scary things, relatives, everyone else. (Ilk and Cagliostro realize that Tara's invitation was created on the spot, along with several others. The messenger appears to be in mental contact with someone.) Ilk considers recreating the Abyss, since it does not appear to have been an original feature. Ilk realizes that recreating the Abyss would not recreate its properties (nor its demon inhabitants, crushed when it slapped shut), and believes that it must have been created by Chaos ripping - with Shadow pulling on one side and the Serpent pulling on the other. Ilk also realizes that the Abyss was a back door to attack the Serpent. Later, all of Mandor's family (including Bevan and Eagleton) are invited to the party.