- Malcolm and Inara get into a knock-down, drag-out fight over Inara having left the Assassin's Guild without permission. Inara's argument that he left first and she was rescuing him do not make much progress, and the argument ends with Mal slapping Inara. - Carolan, the vampire, and Hamster Deirdre return to the group. Caelin and Deirdre greet each other - Deirdre greets Caelin as family member of higher house to head of lower house. - Verra asks Caelin to search for the traces of Pattern-tainted magic. Caelin is surprised by this, since the Pattern is gone. Verra identifies the Pattern with the person who made her unwell and imprisoned her pantheon. - With Carolan's assistance, Caelin creates a Pattern-lens - there is no Pattern locally. Verra asks for a wider view of the entire promontory, Caelin scans for pattern in a wider area. There is a Pattern locally - the energy seems to be concentrated in some sort of stronghold. At Verra's (amended) request, _Carolan_ opens a gate to the area of the Pattern stronghold. (One-way sight and sound, remote side to local - repeated to avoid creating a sound 'hole' on the other side.) To Carolan, it looks like a tor (the site of a king's burial, at least to him). - Deirdre suggests the vampire go scout. He sighs, takes mist form, and goes through to scout. He didn't see any inhabitants, but he scared a bunny to death rematerializing. - The group goes through. The top of the hill is blocked to magic-sight and shrouded by Pattern. - Caelin decides the best way to attempt this is to drain the Pattern. He reaches out, the Pattern does not recognize him as the keyholder. There is an explosion, and Caelin realizes there is a hole in his chest. Caelin is not unused to this, so he checks the size of the hole. It's not lethal, so he starts to fix himself. - Carolan has an ideas, but he doesn't perceive the Pattern energy. Caelin suggests Trump contact to perceive it, but both he and Carolan reject that idea. At Flora's suggestion, Carolan Trumps Flora and tries to tap into her perceptions to view the top of the hill. There is pain, and Carolan's brain wants to scream and leap. Carolan tries to hold onto his brain and perceive something, but fails. But he doesn't die. Flora knocks the Trump out of his hand. Flora and Deirdre start attempting to walk the hilltop Pattern - one goes left, the other goes right. Deidre finds the beginning of the Pattern. - Flora suggests either picking the lock on the Pattern or overwhelming the lock. Flora nominates Caelin to overwhelm the lock. Verra wards, and people realize they can't find the vampire. Caelin starts pouring power into the start of the pattern, and there is a magic-Pattern explosion before too long. - There is discussion of how best to dig into the hill - Deidre bows out as not being size-efficient (even with Carolan's merrily-conjured size-appropriate shovel). Carolan conjures a stone golem and names him "Happy", although the golem is not. Caelin conjures automatic drilling equipment. - The golem and the drill dig, and dig, and dig. After some time, there is no longer sound coming from them. Carolan goes to investigate, and finds slag with a small charred piece of parchment. - Carolan conjures another golem, who also lives to serve (but probably not for long). Per Caelin's (explained) request for telemetric information, Carolan scries the golem and projects an illusion of its surroundings. The Archivist writes two sentences on the front of the golem. He explains this to the group as an "experiment". The first sentence is "Do not read second sentence". No one in the group reads the second sentence. The golem reaches the area of the slag, there is a flash of light, and it melts. Stones thrown down the hallway flash into dust as soon as they cross an invisible line. Magic-sight reveals a magical power surge, on both sides of the line for about six feet in either direction. Caelin prepares to drain the magic - Carolan throws another rock, and Caelin drains the magic. The rock hits the wall. Flora throws another rock, which flashes into dust. Using the Pattern lens, Caelin can see that the flash is a sphere in the tor. - Flora produces a hand grenade and hucks it down the hallway while Caelin concentrates on draining the flash. There is a boom and the hole is now larger than the six-foot sphere. - After the plan of gating past the magical barries is vetoed, Carolan crosses to the other side while Caelin drains the zap. Carolan is preceded by a new golem, which does cross with Carolan but demands time-and-a-half since it's dark and therefore after sunset. Shortly thereafter, the golem is offended at Carolan's organic-centered language and leaves to complain to his union supervisor. The golem walks back into the sphere of doom, and turns into slag. - Caelin conjures a Saruman, and Carolan hands him a shovel and tells him to dig. Caelin offers Saruman the choice of using magic, so Saruman calls to him the orcs of this land. - Carolan notices that the hole they're now in is larger than the tor is wide. This does not bother him, he's been to the Paths of the Dead. There is a body of a goddess, and near the body Carolan finds a rock with blood on it. Carolan looks around, and the whole place is crawling with magical workings. Carolan asks Caelin to drain it, but Saruman volunteers. Shortly thereafter, Saruman zaps out of existence with a greasy smell. Caelin cleans up Saruman's subprocesses, the orcs. - Rocks do not trigger the focal point that killed Saruman. Caelin conjures a bunny that Carolan throws through the focal point. The bunny survives with no ill effect, so Carolan grabs it magically and brings it back. - Caelin and Carolan discuss the magical workings and worry that the workings may be keeping the body somewhat alive, or trapped. They look at the magical workings - much more complicated than either of them is used to understanding. (Particularly Caelin.) - Carolan Trumps Flora, who asks to enter Verra's shield (and is denied) then asks to speak to the Archivist (who is willing to exit). Carolan tries to create an illusion of the magical workings, but the illusion brushes the archivist. The archivist collapses and Carolan has a splitting headache. Flora suggests just draining the working, because as long as they believe in the goddess she can't die. - Carolan and Caelin approach the goddess. The blood is from where her femoral artery would be, if she had one, which she doesn't. Carolan isn't terribly familiar with this particular goddess, but he knows she is from a sect that values the Issola highly. Caelin checks the energy in the focal point - there really isn't very much of it, by his standards. Saruman must be pretty weak if he got blown up by -that-. Caelin keeps draining energy. Carolan loses his Trump contact with Flora. - There's no longer much magic in the workings, nor is there a hole back out of the cave. Caelin tries to conjure a gate out, but "here" is uncertain so Caelin's gate hunts. Caelin can't perceive outside of the bubble that is this cave. - Carolan tries to Trump Flora, and fails. Natasha, fails. Caelin, and Caelin's getting a Trump call, so Carolan drops the call. They theorize that they drained all the magic out of the area, including a magical link to where they were before. Carolan starts working on a Dragaeran beginner's teleport ritual, enhancing the hereness of the place. - After a few minutes, a vampire coalesces out of the darkness and announces that they're stuck. He announces himself as the rescue team - he flowed down the path as they were fading. - Carolan completes his ritual, and tries to open another teleport gate. He fails. Caelin wonders if he can open a gate to the Void - both Carolan and Caelin admit that they can open a gate to the Sea of Chance, but admit this would be rude to the vampire. The goddess appears to have moved slightly, pulled against her chains. The chains seems to be iron (some magnesium, maybe a touch of faerie steel) and are run through her flesh directly. Carolan starts trying to bang his way through the chains using brute force. The vampire joins on a second chisel, and Caelin briefly helps until he breaks the third chisel and a fragment jabs into her foot. - Carolan realizes that he's not going to be getting her out of these chains any time soon, so he starts trying to heal the goddess. Caelin remembers that he has a vial of liquid that will summon Titania's gray place - her antechamber. Caelin stops trying to convince Carolan to go to sleep and uses the vial. Carolan is in a gray place with the goddess on what seems to be an operating table. He is then joined by the vampire, and then his master. Carolan and Caelin speak to someone who is hiding and playing tag. Carolan tries to Trump Flora, but finds that all of his Trumps are warm, even Caelin's. Carolan prays to Verra, but there doesn't seem to be a response. After some time, a small child with his red and orange striped teatunic (that match his socks) pulled over his head, and skips around. He seems to be peering in, at, and over things that they can't see. Carolan introduces himself to the child, who introduces himself as Billings. The kid produces Doctor Thaddeus, a faun. He complains that "They hit ghouls. I'm it again." Doctor Thaddeus is not much help with the goddess, since he usually works with a couch. Doctor Thaddeus starts trying to explain the rules of Faerie. There is a blank in Carolan's mind - he knows he was doing something, but can't remember what. Perhaps gathering wood for the cabin that he's in? - Caelin sees Doctor Thaddeus and Carolan fade out. Caelin rants. - Abalom appears in the shadow, with a company and a half of Cagliostro's elite guard. He announces that he has arrived and asks Cagliostro what the emergency was. Cagliostro is startled, and responds "Nothing?" Absalom explains that he was contacted via a message crystal that showed Cagliostro in some pain, and asked him to shadowalk there because... he stops. "You don't know what shadowwalking is, do you?" Cagliostro warns the crowd of potential incoming threat, and the Snarshts come over. The local Snarsht opines that Absalom should keep walking, and he does so. "That should have taken care of a quarter of the threat." He suggests that Cagliostro get out of sight. - Mistress Janice opens a gate to the tea party shadow. Cagliostro, Calla, and Tara step through. The Ifrit busily cover up Cagliostro traces. The gate is to a tower in Darkover. They gate to a door that has huge claw marks in the outside. The claws marks look animal - more canine than feline, and definitely more canine than lizard. There is a scent of burnt hair, wet wool, and burnt wine. There is a faint scent of rotting flesh. There is a teeth-ripped torso down the hallway. Mistress Janice goes to investigate the chunk, and determines that it is spleenish and male in origin. - Cagliostro asks Calla about reinforcements - Calla likes a small crowd because of the corridors. She doesn't think that the tea parties would like to be rescued by a man, so she vetoes Roland's assistance. Cagliostro reminds her there are female Ifrit, should they enter a larger area. Cagliostro talks to Jodo for a while via Trump and they plan. Cagliostro opines that Absalom was tricked to either trace him or leave Darkover unprotected. Jodo points out that Cagliostro is in the Lady's Tower, so he should probably re-evaluate his success in finding someplace not important. Jodo plans to check onto the castle's status as himself (not disguised as the Count), and with a team. - Cagliostro assesses Tara's clothing and equipment - she has a sword (but no sheath) and an icepick (but no ice), and her clothing is somewhat ragged and smells somewhat of smoke. She has no hat, and her hair is about ear-length. She doesn't seem to have calluses on her hands, and she's wearing what seem to be strong leather boots. Cagliostro offers equipment - Tara demurrs, since she's done fine so far. Cagliostro offers her a sheath - Tara says she never sheathes her weapon until she's done with her hunt. She's been carrying around a naked blade since she was 16 - after all, her mother is still alive. Cagliostro responds "So, perhaps a sheath in the near future, then?" and is greeted by a feral smile. They talk equipment a bit more - she's not sure that she has time to change, and declines trust in Calla's ability, preferring to be self-reliant. Cagliostro offers armor, but Tara considers it cheating and potentially unethical. - Cagliostro trumps Absalom, who does not respond. Cagliostro continues the attempted contact...