- Carolan, along with many other people, is at the fleshy-nodule assembly point. When the "Caelin is experimenting" warning was passed along, Carolan shut down some of his workings, warned Sethra that magic might break, and put the Orb in his knapsack. (Don't put anything that might explode in your pockets.) - Carolan decides to talk to Princess Chandra about what his erstwhile technically-teacher has been doing. She opines that it's his teacher, he should check - Carolan checks to be sure they aren't in Chaos, and Trumps Caelin. Or _tries_ to Trump Caelin - the card fails. It's cool, not cold. And not warm, as it was when Caelin was in Blucite. Carolan talks to Princess Chandra, who suggests that since Caelin is his master, he should check into it. Carolan finds Natasha in the area, and asks her "What has he done? This time?" Natasha responds "I don't know, I was here." Carolan wonders about the wisdom of checking up on something that has discommoded Princess Chandra. Carolan also wonders if Carolan is a smear - so Natasha checks with Cagliostro, and confirms that the Count's magic detectors are still functional. Natasha points out that this means Caelin could be a smear, and declines the Count's offer of a magic detector for safety/shrapnel reasons. They use a line of sight gate to move to another fleshy nodule, and prepare to scry Caelin while placing the assembled crowd at less risk. Natasha receives a set of coordinates she doesn't recognize. Carolan writes a note - "Gone to determine Caelin's smear status. Back Soon." Natasha adds some text in a language Carolan does not know. - Carolan and Natasha coordinate a gate opening to Natasha's coordinates, and it opens onto an idyllic grassy bowl. There are many small toadstools with windows in them, migrating toward that mass of writhing life over there. There are also a couple of small winged women heading toward it. Natasha goes through the gate, and fails to implode, explode, or seem more disturbed than she already was. Carolan follows her through, and pulls the Orb from his knapsack and tosses it up in the air. A flying fat baby with a golden glowing bow and arrow sail past them. Natasha reaches out and grabs a passing small naked lady with wings. Neither Carolan nor Natasha recognize it, so she tosses the woman back into the air. A cat with wings flies past them, also heading to the mass. - The inhabitants are all going to the same spot, the center of the bowl. Natasha confirms that Caelin is at the center of that mass. Carolan picks up a toadstool to examine it - it has tiny legs, and is wearing blue boots that curl up on the end. It is definitely wearing tights, and there is a hint of an ass. Carolan puts the toadstool back down. Carolan notices that the creatures are popping into existence around them, not just migrating past them. Carolan checks for Caelin leakage, and confirms that the area is saturated with the distinct feeling of Caelin-leakage. Carolan and Natasha progress far enough to see Caelin in the center of the pile, along with more unique creatures like three headed dogs. The creatures are fawning over Caelin, and Carolan is fairly convinced they are feeding on Caelin's magic. Caelin is giggling, apparently being licked by three-headed dogs is ticklish. There are a band of pudgy short men dragging a cart full of gems toward Caelin, and singing a merry tune. Carolan also notices that everything is pastel, but it is three-dimensional. - Carolan asks Natasha if there's an off button for Caelin - she says there is, it's being a Yeti. Various strange things are spotted, including shoemaking and green men drinking. - Carolan wades through the mass and pokes Caelin in the side of the head. "They're EVERYwhere!" Carolan confirms that knocking Caelin out doesn't stop the leakage - Natasha confirms that if he's unconscious, it's worse. Natasha overshares, but only very very mildly. Carolan suggests Caelin should become a yeti. Natasha whispers in Caelin's ear, and Caelin laughs and says that all is well in the universe. Natasha and Carolan decide that Caelin is, at best, drunk. - Cagliostro is getting a trump call. He accepts it. Natasha wants him to talk to Random - Caelin is drunk or something, and she wants him sobered up. Natasha tells Cagliostro that when she tried to Trump Random, she says she got the strangest experience of her life. After failing to ask for details, Cagliostro talks to Random. Random is apparently very, very stoned from something he got out of the walls. Random reports that he belives the assembly point is inside a neuron. Cagliostro persuades Random it's time to sober up. Random asks Cagliostro to get a blue 'in case of emergency' pill. Cagliostro gets the pill, Random cracks it open on his leg and a small demon flies out. The demon flies up to random, jabs a corkscrew needle into Random's forehead and pulls a plunger, which fills up with liquid. Random sobers up. "Ow?" Cagliostro confirms: "Ow." Cagliostro rebriefs Random, and passes him through the Trump connection to Natasha. Random tries to sober up Caelin. Many attempts fail. Small worms are dumped in Caelin's mouth, and crawl out the back of his head without leaving a hole. Random eventually procures a large hammer, and strikes Caelin on the head. The hammer dents. Random returns to Natasha - "I'm out." Random speculates that Caelin's not really here - the hammer is designed to knock things apart from magic - and it dented. An earlier attempt shook Pharaban scrapings onto him, which should have instilled fear. Random suggests that Carolan use magic to try do something, but Trumps Cagliostro and leaves before that happens. - Carolan considers the situation. Carolan decides to contact Caelin mentally. The next thing Carolan realizes, he's lying on the ground and wet. Natasha lowers a bucket. Natasha asks if it worked - Carolan concentrates on his memories in order to determine whether he met with any success. Natasha is standing over Carolan with a second bucket. Carolan admits failure. Natasha lets Carolan know that the first bucket steamed when it hit his head. - Carolan and Natasha see a vine-covered green giant, complete with club, heading toward them. They back up, and Natasha discusses shadow shifting with Carolan. Natasha shifts a couple of shadows away from the bowl. - Carolan opens a gate to House Moonlight and there are two men running toward him. They are wearing things that could be used as weapons, but are running and not drawing them or acting hostile. Carolan grabs one as he runs past. The man continues to struggle, pisses himself, and rips himself out of Carolan's grasp (leaving a questionably clean shirt). Natasha hucks a rock, bounces it neatly off the back of his head, and he collapses. Carolan provides gloves, and Natasha picks him up and drags him back. - There is a nice-looking house on the other side of the gate. It looks vaguely tavernish, for a well-traveled road at a not terribly central city. It's the sort of thing that should have a road and outbuildings, and has neither. Natasha welcomes Carolan home, and confirms that this is House Moonlight. They enter the tavern, and Carolan quickly discovers that the building is larger on the inside than on the outside. They quickly find Caelin, but with white hair. Carolan is introduced to the Archivist, and vice versa. ("You look like Caelin." "We both had the - it's complicated.") - Cagliostro is getting another trump call, this time from Natasha. Natasha apologizes for bothering the Count again. Natasha asks for an emphatically non-magical minion. Cagliostro suggests Jayne, last seen at the Assassin's Guild, and warns her about Malcolm's finickiness for the chain of command. - Natasha and Carolan travel to the Assassin's Guild, and recruit Jayne to rescue the Captain and River with promises of the weapons cache. Natasha explains that the weapons will only arrive when someone puts small clay tablets on someone else. Jayne thinks this is weird. Natasha and Carolan pick up a sack of tokens from the Archivist. Jayne notes the similarity to gaming pieces, and asks if the tokens are worth any money. He is disappointed to find out they're just clay. - The group steps back through the gate. Jayne comments fondly on the resemblance House Moonlight has to a whorehouse he helped defend once. Jayne is pushed through a gate to the grassy bowl by Natasha. Jayne approves of the flying naked girls. Natasha uses his affection for flying naked people to persuade Jayne to continue with the mission. - At Natasha's direction, Carolan builds a bulkwark with a shock-absorbing material that Natasha exudes. ("I build the fortress out of Twinkies. You know, I never thought I'd say those words in my life.") - Jayne decides that no one said he had to be gentle or anything, and throws the bag of bibliomantic tokens onto Caelin. There is a *THWOMP*. There are bits of faeries embedded in the fortification. There is devastation in the grassy bowl, and no sign of Jayne. There is a churn of faerie bits in the bowl. Carolan senses, and determines that Caelin's essence is still in the area, still in the center of the bowl. It may be dispersed, or Caelin may have just been blown -down- into the ground. Carolan wanders into the bowl, and finds Jayne covered in faerie bits and ichor. Jayne looks... broken. Moving him would be bad. - Natasha trumps Cagliostro, and informs him that Jayne is... broken. They discuss whose responsibility Jayne is, not to mention River and Malcolm (who are both missing, River having gone looking for Malcolm). Cagliostro notes that if Jayne moves, this will create many many bone splinters that will make fixing him more difficult. Cagliostro creates a wheeled bacta tank around Jayne in situ, and wheels him back. (Strangely, there seems to be no shortage of power on the other side of the Trump.) Jayne floats. - Cagliostro (and presumably Mistress Janice) gate to Johnny3, just outside the Fringe. Cagliostro lets Johnny know about Jayne, Malcolm, et al (and provides labeled polaroids of same). Cagliostro also makes sure that Johnny knows that Osric is incapacitated and that Johnny is responsible for protecting the Fringe. Cagliostro offers additional minions, and Johnny3 accepts after specifying that they must be Fringeworthy. Cagliostro provides Team Alpha to Johnny3 as magically capable assistants, after asking Milord Snarsht to make Team Alpha magically capable. The leader of Team Alpha gets a Trump of Cagliostro, and promises only to use it in case of direst emergency. The count advises him to use it in dire emergency, not just direst. Cagliostro opens a gate to Chaos (near the Assassin's Guild), and provides a small metal egg that will close this gate if passed through it. Cagliostro then returns to the fleshy nodule shadow. - Johnny3 hoverchairs into the Assassin's Guild - which seems to have a new layout, no desk guard, and one corridor leading to one room. Johnny3 enters the room. Johnny and Simon meet each other and compare pictures of River. Johnny gathers information - Malcolm went to start up the ship, with Zoe and Kaylee. River said she was needed, and she left, despite Simon's urging to stay put. - Johnny3 talks with Johnny4 through the Fringe computer, and decides that he is out of ideas. Johnny3 remembers his minions, and asks the Ifrit if they can track the missing people - the Ifrit compare notes, and say that yes, they can. But they need raiments of the targets. "Raiments?" "Clothing." "Oh, right". - Johnny3 steps back into the Assassin's Guild with the Ifrit mage who volunteered to cast the tracking spell. They talk to Simon, who points them toward the back room to find clothing. Johnny3 talks to Roland for a bit about the situation. Roland informs Johnny3 that there is a curfew being enforced in Chaos, at the King's order, and speculates that the missing people could have been rounded up by flying goon squads enforcing the King's curfew. Johnny3 is very confused by the idea of a curfew, especially one that purportedly includes dragons. (Roland says that a dragon told him of this curfew.) Time passes, and the Ifrit doing the working has created four gold cups with a luminescent water inside them, and a bit of metal on top. Three of the bits of metal are pointing in one direction, the other is not. The fourth bit of metal represents River. The group sets forward, and in a few steps a bit of landscape attempts to envelop one of the Ifrit. The Ifrit shrugs off the attempt, and politely asks Johnny3 for a bit more information on the local environment, and Johnny3 shares what he knows (which turns out to be a fair amount). The arrow changes direction after the first way, and the group continues. After some distance, they are stopped by the goon squad. Johnny3 negotiates with the near goon, whilst a larger group covers them with ranged weapons. Johnny3 claims the King's service, which is apparently a popular claim. (Claiming Princess Chandra's vengeance if they are interfered with is also surprisingly popular.) Unlike most who claimed to be in the King's service, Johnny3 makes their king's minion detection crystal (fringe crystal) glow. But, without written permission from the King to break curfew, they still strongly request that - although not under arrest - Johnny3 accompany him to the general holding pen at Thelbane. - At Thelbane, none of the arrows point anywhere local. Johnny3 and the Ifrit decline to enter the Chanicut cage (third cage on the right), and the Ifrit create a magical shield and exit Thelbane, under fire. Jean says hello to the Ifrit, who pass along a message to Cagliostro that they are beset, but do not require reinforcement. Cagliostro checks with Gil to see if being beset at Thelbane is important, and Cagliostro and Gil decide not to get involved in Chaosian politics. - The Ifrit suggest reinforcements, so Johnny3 navigates them (under constant fire) to the magical gate, where Johnny3 and Jean go through and talk to the Ifrit. Hamster Benedict takes over the planning fairly quickly. - Hamster Benedict issues a plan, steps through the gate and enters a Jean saucer. He delivers an ultimatum to the attackers ("We're in the King's service, we're going about our business, we don't care if we're violating curfew but if you do you can follow us and look for other curfew breakers"), then triggers the attack plan. The enemy quickly surrenders. One of the Ifrit is slightly wounded and two of the opponents are wounded, but there are no fatalities. The Ifrit was only injured because he deliberately interposed himself to prevent a friendly fire casualty on the other side. This helped convince the enemy that the Ifrit + Johnny3 + Hamster Benedict were not, in fact, an enemy. Hamster Benedict returns to his work at the Fringe. - Cagliostro has mostly finished pumping the solid air out of the crippled Ifrit (with help from the repaired ones). After that, he needs to fix Jayne and the pyromaniac son of Al-Nasir. - Caelin has not noticed anything about anything.