(Cagliostro has learned that eyes and telescopes have the same optical resolution here.) How to find the City of Ravens? Cagliostro learns about thirty or forty settlements on the edge of the Drytowner's territory. The Drytowner 'horse-day' measurement seems unreliable when comparing Drytowner memories. Because of the unreliability of measurements and the potential mobility of settlements, the true number is probably different. Open a gate to a settlement - picking a spot where the Drytowners would hide before entering. Other end point is the base of the ramp, and opening the gate to the memory location requires Mistress Janice's help. The group enters a secluded hollow, and there is an oasis - which smells like several week old dead dog. The stench doesn't seem to have a source - it pervades the area. Mistress Janice, Cagliostro, and the sword-sisters enter the settlement. There is a place for a picket, but no one there, and no barrier or guards blocking entry. There are a lot of people. Check out the marketplace - food, drink, handmade trinkets, bodyguards (not terribly impressive). Mysteries sold by a curiousity seeker - looks like the product of a distracted shapeshifter. Cagliostro examines the objects - they seem to have a surprisingly high mystic inertia. Like they were warped by someone more powerful than Cemen. The objects are more real than Cagliostro, and may be more real than Cemen. The seller declines to sell more than three - he says they interact poorly with each other. (It's clear he doesn't believe this, but he's also pretty nuts - and has a high level of mystic inertia.) Cagliostro continues to negotiate. He works his way up to five, and his sword-sister points out a donkey in the street. The donkey, although perfectly ordinary, is the first donkey Cagliostro has seen in Darkover. Cagliostro tries to count the number of objects - they seem to be merging and budding in the various trays. The seller doesn't seem to notice. He's been selling these for a while - years. Lots of them. But not here - he has memories of a night market. Cagliostro decides to cut his time loss, and buys five of them. In a year or two, he says he'll be back around here, and be willing to negotiate for some more. Cagliostro trumps Colin to find a safe stashing place. Colin really wants Caglisotro to go back and talk to him - Cagliostro suggests coming through. Colin explains his departure to Cemen, and comes through in a nice quiet alleyway. Colin and Caglistro duck an amazon chasing a young man through the alley, and Colin goes off to talk to the man. The donkey seems to be free-range, but has a bridle and a saddle. It seems well cared-for, well-groomed. Groomed, shod, worn but serviceable saddlebags. The gear is particularly missing badging, although the edge looks like worn Arabic (perhaps deliberately worn). Cagliostro provides carrot-based snacks for the donkey whilst checking it out. Colin and the seller have slipped into at least one other language unknown to Cagliostro, after a quick mention of terabits and shekels. A dark-skinned man (skin lightened by makeup) arrives - and when he notices the donkey nuzzling Cagliostro, suddenly becomes fascinated by a nearby fig-seller. Cagliostro is carefully ignored until he (in Arabic) offers lessons in infiltration in exchange for a conversation. He offers directions to a meeting point and wanders off. Cagliostro and a sword-sister enter the inn - she opens the door, carefully. Inside, it looks like a Bedouin tent - very carefully arranged. They chat - Cagliostro is offered food and drink, and apologies are made regarding the lack of women who know appropriate customs. The man does not know of the City of Ravens, but there are more learned members of his tribe. In a fortnight, he's meeting with a covert courier who can introduce Cagliostro to the rest of his group. Cagliostro offers some infiltration advice and techniques for more subtle skin-lightening. He warns of Drytowners - powerful in groups, but easy to defeat individually. He declines to share information about known settlements, leaving that for the elders. There is a whistle outside the window - the sword-sister comes out. Colin and the seller are fighting back to back, chitinous bug form to paramecium. A sword-sister is on the ground, bleeding from a head wound. Cagliostro conjures knockout gas - knocking out the crowd. One of the curiousities starts hopping around in the gas. Colin and the parimecium react poorly, so Cagliostro takes more care to avoid them with the gas. Arrows sail in from rooftops as people start to collapse - Cagliostro puts up a force screen, which blocks the arrows (after shattering a few before things get fine-tuned). The paramecium extends cilia and runs for the horizon - quickly. He's either getting larger, or something else weird is happening. "I can't take you anywhere!" Colin turns to look at Cagliostro - something about his eye's just isn't right. Cagliostro reviews Colin's body chemistry - it changes fairly regularly. Cagliostro wrangles the last hopping thing using a gas-creating cage. Cagliostro gates back to the ramp - he wakes up the Bedouin to say goodbye. The Bedouin requests being carried back through. He seems familiar with, and okay with, the concept of magical gates. Cagliostro gates to a spot under an observation point and drops off the curiousities - he creates a cage around the cage to amuse them, bows, and returns. He checks himself against baselines and finds a small object at the base of his spine. He can't gate it out, because he can't read it and doesn't know where it is. He pleads hygene, and briefs the previously injured sword-sister on removing the object from his spine. Sword-sister carefully removes the object, which seems to come out in one piece - a crepe-like roll of dark brown material. Cagliostro sends it back to be with the rest of the curiousites, then trumps Mistress Janice. She is bound and in a dark basket - Cagliostro opens a magical gate and frees her. She spends the fifteen minutes cursing herself, and Cagliostro takes to come up with a surprise - a 900 foot inflatable Kintani that he swaps back into the basket. When Cagliostro is done, she says "Cute guys suck". Apparently she was conned into entering the basket. Cagliostro explains the curiousity and Colin situation to the crowd. Cemen very carefully doesn't react. Mistress Janice is introduced to the Bedouin, who is effusively complimentary. She is irritated at herself for being attracted to his compliments. A tearing noise happens, followed by plummeting. A blue thing starts falling from 4.5 miles up. Cagliostro and Mistress Janice set up a gravity cancelling trampoline and catch a blue golem. The golem spits out two curiousities, encased in blue crystal. The blue crystal doesn't seem to be golem-crystal or matrix-crystal, just blue crystal. A rumble happens in the distance, in the direction the golem went. Something blue streaks up at engine speed, and it is followed by a herd of giant purple leprous crabs. The 3-400 suitcase-sized purple crabs are too close to gate away, so Cagliostro et al gate to another point on the perimeter. The golem shows up, Cagliostro steps through to the other side. The crabs keep going up the perimeter, and the guards report that artillery and fire have failed. Cagliostro shows up at the top of the ramp with Gil, and tries to use a force barrier to keep the crabs from mounting a barricade. Trying to enclose them fails, as the force gets sucked out. He tries carrot throwing and a Shiny gun to distract the crabs. It distracts a tenth, who trample a quarter. He discusses things with gil, and tries magic suckers - they stop the crabs, although a few require two or three suckers. Cagliostro steps back, leaving Gil to supervise cleanup and containment in a new facility at the base of the ramp. The golem bows, draws a picture of a bug with a thing inside it - the thing being ripped out, falling, and a lot of crabs. Cagliostro trumps Colin - who is sitting on the edge of a beach to nothingness. He seems somewhat crazy, but docile. Cagliostro leaves him alone.