UNICORN NO SEISHI TIMELINE Day -18 * Lucien is found by Ambassador Arimi, daughter of Moire, in an Arthurian shadow. They begin shadowwalking back to Amber. Day -?? * Beowulf boards the AAF Arden in Amber, en-route to points between Cathay and Cape Westb'ryport. Day -3 * Kanna boards the AAF Arden in Cathay, on the trail of the Rare Art Thief 'Renard Le Fox'. * [Lucien meets Cousin Hiko in Arden as they pass through it.] * The "Second Key" is supposedly stolen from Ukyou Kuonji's onyakiami stand in the backwoods of Lipun by Chaosians (House Tremere). Day 1 [March 22, 1332 AY] * Today is the Spring Equinox, the Festival of Greening. * Kanna and Beowulf encounter each other on the AAF Arden. Beowulf starts to make a sale of some silver Sidar-rune covered burial urns to Lord Kahn of Westb'ryport, but gets interrupted by Egyptian Nile Empire cultists who want the urns. Kanna and Beowulf fight off and capture the cultists, but in the process one of the urns is stolen and one of the cultists escape via magic (though Beowulf manages to capture the ring used by the man). A group of card players/artifact smugglers are also apprehended by Kahn's flunkies. Beowulf and Khan make the sale of the remaining two urns, and then Kahn and his men depart. * Kanna and Beowulf go to interrogate the captured smugglers. As it turns out, they were waiting for Renard to show to buy some Rebman Sacrifical Daggers from him, but decided to try and nick the silver urn instead (they were also playing with cards from the City of Brass, which is odd as they don't tend to import those sorts of things). Further questioning is interrupted by a Bloc Rebmaquois terrorist, and Kanna has Gabrielle trump the artifact smugglers back to Ember for later questioning. A steward gets turned into a frog by the terrorist, and then the gasbag of the zeppelin is detonated (fortunately, since the gasbag is filled with Ember Helium, the AAF Arden does not explode, just begins to plummet.). Beowulf produces a replacement zeppelin from his bag, and Kanna has Gaby trump the passengers and crew to the replacement. The Bloc Rebmaquois terrorists escape via hangglider to the ocean. Kanna and Beowulf do one last pass through the AAF Arden, and recover a Rebman sacrificial dagger, an Egyptian Obelisk made with some unknown power, and a card left by Renard le Fox in the purloined ship's safe. They grab the items and head to the Ajax. The AAF Arden hits the ocean and gets eaten by a whale (taking the captured Egyptians with it). The group continues to fly for the Cape. * Moriya, Jacqueline, Motoko, and Thoric attend the evening spring equinox festivities in Lipun's capital. Jacqueline participates in a goldfish-catching game, and wins 6 goldfish. The group makes a wish on a shooting star. They buy some seafood and tea from a nearby food stand, and endure the stand-owner's singing. After their meal, they go to attend a kabuki performance (about a foolish foreign lord who comes to Lipun and makes a fool of himself), which is also being attended by Lord Keiichi and his family and retainers. * Thoric, in the process of trying to go to the bathroom, ends up stumbling forward and getting tangled up with Jacqueline and various other audience members. Ninjas attack, but given the movements of the Amberites there, they're not hurt. Motoko defends Lord Keiichi from the assault, as does Moriya. Much chaos ensues, but most of the ninjas and crossbow-men are taken out by Moriya, Matoko, and the firey disco ball of Snoop Mo G'. Motoko uses her magical powers to extract the truth of what had happened from one of the captive ninja -- that they were sent by Lord Takeo and Lord Hayama (former allies of the Shogun) to kill Lord Keiichi for being a traitor to Lipun (for breeding with foreigners and producing halfbreeds, etc.). Moriya and Thoric help rescue survivors. Shizumaru is trumped in and informed of the situation. The group heads off for the night, no longer in the mood for the festival. Day 2 [March 23, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Beowulf trade stories on the way to Westb'ryport. Kanna learns about Loompaland, and tries a Wonka Bar. She pronounces it to be very good. Day 3 [March 24, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Beowulf land at Cape Westb'ryport. Beowulf stuffs the Ajax back in, and then they go shopping. Beowulf buys some spices for Nanami, and Kanna buys some mint tea for herself. They then visit a figurine store, and buy a mini-discworld for Mutsumi and a ship similar to the Fireshark, Kozue's flagship, as gifts. Kanna and Beowulf drop hints about le Fox to the store owner, who doesn't know who they're talking about (thereby indicating that rumors of his existance hadn't gotten there yet). The two trump back to Amber Castle. * Kanna and Beowulf encounter Mutsumi and head to her rooms. Beowulf gives Mutsumi the mini-discworld figurine, while Kanna trumps Mia to analyze the 'For Women Only' spice that Beowulf ended up being given. Kanna, Beowulf, and Mutsumi discuss the painting she's working on, which is based on a book of Therin horror stories that Thoric favors. Further discussion is interrupted by a chase scene involving Tama-Chan, Snickers, Mitsumi in fox-form, and Shinobu Major's foxhounds. Kanna and Beowulf manage to defuse the situation. * Kanna and Beowulf go to see Nanami at City Hall about the artifacts they recovered. Nanami agrees to analyze the obelisk later, and reports that the ring is effectively a spell-rack for others to use. The dagger is indeed a Rebman Sacrifical dagger with an extra slot for storing a spell. In exchange for the analysis, Beowulf and Kanna agree to sink a KTC ship smuggling opium before it can reach Amber that night, and are given a folder with information about the ship. * Kanna trumps off to Shalomar Naval Base to try and get in touch with Kozue. Beowulf goes to talk with his mother, Wakaba, who offers to fill the ring with spells for him to use. He also finds out that Lily's looking for him, and heads to the library to find her. Lily and Anna the assistant librarian are researching a fortune told to Lord Percy, the master of the hunt. Beowulf and Lily are capable of decoding that it likely involves Chaos and places in Shadow in some fasion, though why -Percy- got it is beyond them. Beowulf and Lily agree to have dinner in one of the possible shadows before returning to help Kanna. Beowulf also does some research on Egyptian cults, and manages to narrow down the possibilities to six within short shadowwalking distance to Cape Westb'ryport. Mitsumi uses a spell and copies of the runes from the urns to construct a map of some form of temple related to a dragon. * Kanna waits in line to see Aunt Kozue, and writes in her diary while waiting. She finally sees Kozue, gives her the ship as a gift, and then talks with her a while about her recent adventures. The fact that Renard was planning to sell Rebman Sacrifical Daggers, added to the Bloc Rebmaquois attack, suggests that he either stole them from one of the Rebman exile groups, or that he might have robbed Bloc Rebmaquois directly. Kanna thanks Kozue for the info after getting some more names to contact, and heads back to Amber. * Kanna encounters Beowulf and a recently arrived Lian. Beowulf tells Kanna and Lian about the little fortune told to Percy, which sets off alarm bells for Kanna, given parts match up TOO well to the prophesy she received from Yig. The three trump up to Kanna's rooms in Ember, and she shows them her transcription of the prophesy, and then begin discussing what it means in its various forms. Gabrielle adds her two cents to it, but this brings up some concern from Bey and Kanna, given that she spoke without knowing she was doing it. While this is not an unknown behaviour for Gabrielle (given her ties to the Fire Pattern), it's still worrisome. The prophesy is worked through, more lines of inquiry are established, and the group starts turning their attentions towards the KTC raid that night. * Beowulf and Lily head to Talislanta, a mobius shadow. The two visit a curio shop and buy some stuff, while talking about other places they've visited. They go swimming at the Inverted Lake, and while they do so a street urchin tries to steal their stuff, in the process activating one of Lily's trumps to Bizarro World. Lily teleports them into Bey's bag, and they make more preparations while in fast-time. Beowulf then gets out of the bag, and manages to convince the Bizarro Cops to release the street urchin into his custody -- just as the Master arrives and captures his bag (and the boy, and Bizarro Superman). Beowulf shadow-walks into the Master's Tardis, fights off Cybermen, Daleks, and Yeti, and manages to subdue the Master temporarily. Lily extracts from the Master's mind that the map on Beowulf's vases actually leads to a -spikard-, which the Master was planning to hook up to the Eye of Harmony. They attempt to return to Amber, but a mistimed sequence of events allows the Master to escape and dump Bey's bag in an infinite Hellfire Shadow. Beowulf grabs his bag and trumps out of there before he's burned to a crisp, and gets back to Amber and hops back into the bag to be fast-time healed by Lily. After he recovers, Lily and Beowulf have a heart- to-heart talk... and other things... before splitting up for the evening. * Kanna talks with her father, the Red Knight, on the roof of Castle Ember about various things. The Red Knight asks about Kanna's progress with hunting down the Fox, and she fills him in. Talk turns to Bloc Rebmaquois for a bit, and then Kanna expresses her fears about what's to come vis. the Outsiders. The Red Knight reassures her that they'll be able to fight them off (as has been done before), and that Gabrielle's odd behaviour during the hash session was due to her ties to the Fire Pattern (since the Patterns were partially made to help keep out the Outsiders, and therefore have knowledge Gabrielle doesn't). Kanna throws out a few ideas of what she's going to do about it at the moment -- watching and waiting, and informing key people. The Red Knight asks how Sumire is doing, and Kanna relates the story of the Wet-T-Shirt incident. Her mood lightened, Kanna returns to Amber after giving her father a quick kiss on the cheek and a hug. * Lian talks with Fuyutsuki, and encounters him running a wish-fulfillment scenario for his Horatio action figure (allowing him to run over the Roderick action figure, accompanied by the Juri of Avalon action figure.) She asks him for texts on the Outsiders, but unfortunately said books have been killed, joined the enemy, or sold. Fuyutsuki also confirms the Melkor had created the Lion Spikards that Annadil used. Lian gets more information on the Spoon, Knife, and Fork, and history and uses for them. Fuyutsuki also asks Lian if she's been nailed to a big metal crucifix yet, which she hasn't but the thought unnerves her. * Kanna trumps into the Castle Amber Courtyard just as Lucien, Arimi, and Kano arrive. They exchange introductions, and then head up to King Tylor's suites to make formal presentation to the king. Kanna makes an appointment to talk with Arimi the following day. They interrupt one of Tylor's Virtual Whack-an-Outsider sessions, and then sit and talk. Lucien petitions to walk the Pattern the following day, and Tylor gives his approval. * Lucien meets with Miki, Madoka, Mutsumi, and briefly joins in their music session before introducing himself. Mutsumi trumps Kozue and brings her through. He describes a bit of what he's been through, and his intentions to walk the Pattern and claim his birthrights, the DemiJewel of Water and Greyswandir. Miki analyzes the ring that Lucien got from the Rhinemaidens, and determines that it's a Pattern Key that allows access to a shadow that would normally be locked. Miki gives his advice of how to walk the Pattern. Lucien arranges to get a deck of Trumps from Miki and Mutsumi the following day. * Beowulf meets with Kanna at Tylor's after he breifly interrupts their shared game of Virtual Whack-an-Outsider. Beowulf discusses some of the recent events, and the concerns about various forces now likely wanting to hunt down the spikard that the vase-map would lead to (the Master, Lord Khan, themselves...) Beowulf gets approval from Tylor to search for it, and makes plans to meet with Anthy and see somebody at Panopticon the following day about the sidar runes involved with the map. Beowulf and Kanna play one last round of VWAO before heading off to see Lian. * Beowulf, Kanna, and Lian re-rendevous, and prepare to sink the KTC ship. They ride off to a small cove to the north of Amber, Beowulf deploys the sub, and then the three sail north underwater to intercept the KTC ship. * [Jaquie walks water pattern, somehow? Under the influence of 'Taylor', the possible 'Lion's Heir'.] * Lucien heads to bed in Castle Amber, and dreams of various things (including being crucified on a huge black cross covered with golden tracery). Day 4 [March 25, 1332 AY] * Beowulf, Kanna, and Lucien intercept the Kashmir Trading Collective ship. Long range scans reveal cold iron blocking magic scries, so they decide to disguise themselves and board. They ascend to the top of the ship's cabin, leaving the sub on autopilot, and Beowulf moves to investigate the ship's hold. However, this (and the dropping of their disguises as three of the four Beatles) alerts the Siamese fighting monks onboard of the people trying to board the ship. Kanna, Beowulf, and Lian engage in an extended fight scene against the monks. Meanwhile, the wizard in the cabin (which nobody got around to checking, even though Lian suggested it) manages to sink Beowulf's sub, transform the carried opium into sugar, and then teleports out before his time-delayed Akira spell goes off. Beowulf, Lian, and Kanna escape via Gabrielle Trump Gate just as the ship explodes and is overcome by a massive wave. * Lucien dreams of a meeting between 'Taylor' and Derith within the Water Pattern chamber, and then fights off a horde of Deep Ones when they break through. Although he manages to save Taylor, Derith is killed by the flawed pattern blade Taylor carried wielded by a Deep One, and the Pattern shatters. He retrieves the Jewel of Judgement from Derith's skull, and it burrows into his left eye socket. Drake appears, weilding Werewindle and Magnus the Unseen, and as he's about to kill Lucien, the dream ends. * Lucien wakes, writes down the details of his dream, and goes back to sleep. * [2 am -- Jaquie's Morgenstern Manifestation shatters due to Water Pattern Energy conflicting with Flawed Fire Pattern Energy, feedbacking on Morgenstern in the process, taking him temporarily offline and frying a good portion of his memory. Jaquie vanishes. The True Jewel of Judgement gets catapulted out of the Vortex, taking Jacqui with it.] * Beowulf, Kanna, and Lian are trumped to the observatory of the Lighthouse of Cabra, where Nagisa is watching the disturbance over Rebma. This puts them in a prime location to watch the Jewel of Judgement launch itself out of the Vortex (taking Jacqui with it), and the beginning dissipation of the Shadow Storms. Beowulf, Kanna, and Lian accept Nagisa's hospitality for the night. * [The Rebma Vortex vanishes, as well as the Shadow Storms above it. Rebma returns to the TAMD universe, albeit massively damaged.] * Lucien wakes up again, and goes to breakfast, where he meets Mutsumi and Keitaro. He eats, and gets a trump deck from Mutsumi, and examines the cards, recognizing his father, Drake, and King Tylor, who looks like the flying man/Taylor encountered in the vision. After breakfast, he seeks out Yuriko to tell her about his dream. Vash mentions he may have seen the unknown man at Bloody Annadil's. * Beowulf and Kanna wake up. Lian has already departed, and Nagisa has gone to investigate the return of Rebma. Beowulf and Kanna talk about what they've recently experienced, discuss their plans for the day, and prepare to face the music. Kanna gets a confirmation on Beowulf's "For Women Only" spice -- it was indeed an aphrodesiac. They trump back to Amber and head for Nanami's office in City Hall. * Beowulf and Kanna meet with Nanami. Nanami is not particularly pleased with the full results of their attempt to sink the KTC ship... the 1 Comet price on their heads in Siam and Sind, as well as the diplomatic protests of the KTC and Siamese government being major factors. They get advice from Nanami to get out of Amber for a while so that she can do damage control. Kanna learns of another Renard le Fox theft -- this time of Sindhi statuettes from the owner of the KTC, which may have turned up in Begma in House Winfri. Beowulf gets advice and information on the various types of spikards from Nanami. Nanami also gives Beowulf a small obelisk that will allow him to track the energies given off by the Construct-Manifestation-Monlith Kanna and Beowulf had retrieved earlier. The two depart and split up, after agreeing to relay information from Lian to the others, and to trump-call in the evening if not heard from. Kanna gets Gabrielle to make a trump of Lian for Beowulf. * Lucien walks the Metal Pattern. Once he finishes, he has the Pattern teleport him to where he can find allies and information to begin his quest for Greyswandir. * Lucien finds himself in a library. He makes the aquaintence of Astinus, the head librarian, and then begins his research. * [Nagisa, Mikage, and Nausicaa investigate the damage caused to Rebma, and are able to meet with Moire long enough before she dies to learn a few things of what happened.] * Beowulf encounters Thoric, and tries to convince him to come along to CAFAM and the later expedition for the spikard, and fails. He meets up with Mitsune and Lily, who then go to see Queen Anthy (and encounter Mutsumi) to interpret the Sidar runes from Beowulf's spikard map. She tells him more about the Dragon Spikards. Beowulf, Mitsune, Lily, and Mutsumi head for CAFAM's. * Moriya hears of Jacquie's dissapearance, and joins up with Shaft to begin investigations. They rendevous with Yumi, who informs them of some of the events that night, and then they head down to the docks to get a boat (where they see that the Shadow Storms are gone.) Yumi, Utena, and Wakaba join them, and they sail off to investigate. * Nausicaa's group reaches the Water Pattern chamber, where they find the remains of Derith of Rebma, a shattered flawed pattern blade, and scratched into the ground "Taylor" and "Leviathan". The Water Pattern itself is effectively shattered and destroyed. Moriya's group catches up with them, and they investigate the room some more, but Wakaba is unable to scry to see what happened at the moment of detonation/destruction. * A group of Bloc Rebmaquois terrorists gets their hands on Gaerthos, the Ring of Tides, and start to seal Rebma away under a dome of ice. The group goes up to confront them and tries to fight off the summoned sharks and whales led by Dolphin/"Shark" (?) to some effect, but they decide to depart given the Bloc leader has the spikard and they're currently in its primary element. Shaft, Utena, Wakaba, Yumi, and Moriya get another ship from the harbor to try and find Jacqueline, while Nagisa, Mikage, and Nausicaa head back to Castle Amber to inform Tylor about Moire's death and to give Nausicaa some rest, while she rambles about "Taylor" being the "Lion's Heir". * Beowulf's group reach CAFAM's, and learn of a -spikard- being sold : Tirthos, the Ring of Storms, a Lion Spikard. They head into, buy paints and books, and then fertilizer. Bamboo fishing rods are bought, and they buy lunch. Along the way to the ring aisles, among the food isles, they defuse a mermaid riot protesting 'Frozen Mermaid Flesh' being sold. * Kanna meets with Ambassador Arimi at the Rebman Embassy. She learns of Lucien walking the Metal Pattern and heading off into Shadow. Kanna then gives more details on the Rebman Sacrificial Dagger theft, and Arimi gives several places to check (the Temple of the Narwhal in Atlantis, Duchess Yurika's mercenary fleet), but suggests that le Fox most likely stole them from the Rebmaquois, as they don't usually hit zeppelins, since water magics aren't as strong in the middle of the air. Kanna then learns that Rebma has resurfaced, though has been taken over by the Rebmaquois. She leaves a request for Corrine to be notified whenever final services are for Moire, even though by now there's not much left. The two part ways, amiably. * Kanna heads over to the Ember Embassy to make an appointment to talk with Sumire at 3. She then commandeers a conference room and holds a trump conversation with Lian (who's on her way to the Infinite Library) about various and sundry current events, such as Lucien's appearance, and the warning of the price on her head. Lian meanwhile informs Kanna of what she learned from Fuyutsuki in general terms, and her intentions to research stuff. Kanna then trump-calls Miki, who loans Kanna trumps of Miwa, Yurika, and the Rebman Embassy and suggests going down to the docks of Amber and shaking people down who might know about Bloc Rebmaquois. She also agrees to get Miki some Begman roses when she's in the area. * Kanna has lunch at Maison l'Roi's, makes small talk with King, and gets directions to Madame ZaZa's in the Ward of the Iron Pot. * Kanna heads to Madame ZaZa's, and pays to have her fortune read. The textual portions resonate strongly with some parts of her Yig Prophesy and intended goals, though the audio-visual parts are more confusing. (at least one part suggests going to see the Shadow Theatre.) * Shaft, Utena, Wakaba, Yumi, and Moriya set sail, trying to track down Jacqui and regularly trying to trump her. Morgan is trumped in to aid them. * Kanna returns to the Ember Embassy and writes down what she saw and heard at ZaZa's while waiting for Sumire. * Kanna meets with Sumire at 3 pm. Kanna explains the events leading up to herself, Beowulf, and Lian trying to sink the KTC smuggling ship to an irritated Sumire. Sumire pointedly suggests that Kanna avoid further work offers that could lead to diplomatic incedents. Kanna lets Sumire know that she's still working on the the le Fox case, and her intentions to be in Begma tracing stuff down that was stolen from Horatio Wapole. Sumire gives some advice on how to recognize them. Kanna then mentions to Sumire the appearance of Percy's prophesy, and how parts resonate with her Yig Prophesy, and the recent appearance of Derith's son Lucien, the 'lost fish'. Further discussion is halted by Sumire's secretary, who says there's somebody there to meet Kanna. * Kanna meets with Kuonji Ukyou, an okonomiyaki chef from Lipun whose family was entrusted with the "Second Key" which was to be used whenever the "Gate of Referendum" in Lipun is about to open (programmed to open 40 years after the Gate of Revolution in Tir'na-Nog). Apparently the Second Key has been stolen by Chaosians (House Tremere, a sorcerous artifact house) and taken to Chaos. Ukyou estimates one to two weeks until the Gate of Referendum will open, and then from there 3 days before Lipun is transformed into a beachhead for the Outsiders. Ukyou asks Kanna, the "Heir to the Sun", for help in retreiving it, and ONLY her help, as the prophesies are rather specific that having more will lead to disaster. Kanna agrees to help Ukyou (while having internal mental reservations, due to the timing and not everything in the story fitting together. However, the -rest- of the information provided, such as the founding of his line (possibly by Prince Van), and the fact that he knows Sidar and ways of dealing with Outsiders, give some credence to his story). * Kanna and Ukyou head up to Ember, and gets him settled in the castle while Kanna runs around. She Patternsights Ukyou, and finds out he has a -full- Air Pattern Imprint. * Kanna questions the four art thief thugs a little more about Renard le Fox -- how many daggers they'd planned to buy from him (about 12), how they got in touch with him (a local fence in Westb'ryport), and where they were planning to sell them (rich folks in the Cape). Kanna then lets them go, having Gabrielle trump them back to Westb'ryport. * During dinner, Beowulf's group overhear the Knights of the Dinner Table (in the service of Hathor) discussing their own searc for the spikard, and the possible appearance of 'Dread Pirate Beowulf' and his evil minions. Beowulf's group chats with the KODT, giving false info to the identity of who really hit that KTC ship. * Queen Corrine has a formal state dinner with the Siam Ambassador, who is protesting the KTC ship sinking. Kanna gives the Dining Hall a wide berth. * Kanna meets with Mia, and arranges for her to provide a named/numbered forms convey-shapeshift headband, ostensibly for helping in pursuing le Fox. She also asks for a spell ring with compel/detect truth spells, but that will take several days. The headband should be ready in the morning. * Kanna eats dinner in her rooms and writes in her diary while waiting for her mom. * Kanna gets lovingly chewed out by her mom. Kanna fills in Corrine about her current pursuit of le Fox, his thefts from the Rebmaquois and other places, the appearance of Lucien and the return of Rebma (and the Rebmaquois now holding it), and the entire KTC debacle. She leaves out the parts about it looking like the Yig Prophesy is starting to come into effect, and the entire Ukyou thing. * After Corrine departs, Kanna does a Trump Fortune on wether she can trust Ukyou or not. The results are odd, but not unfavorable, especially since some of the cards confirm her hypothesises about Ukyou, and where they're going to be going. * Kanna finishes writing in her diary, leaves that in the safe while bringing out her travel diary, writes a quick letter to the family in case things go fubar, then SLEEPS. * Beowulf's group makes camp, and Mitsune makes a group of SD-Amberite Blood Creatures to stand guard. They sleep. Day 5 [March 26, 1332 AY] * Beowulf's CAFAM group wakes up, and break camp after breakfast. * Kanna gets supplies, the numbered forms headband, and one of the Caine Dagger/Crossbows from various sources in Castle Ember. She and Ukyou then trump to CAFAM, after a 'bad feeling' warns Kanna off from trying to trump for Yig. The two start hellriding from CAFAM to 'The Second Key to the Gate of Referendum', making progress and moving out into Shadow. * Moriya trumps his father to get the status on the assasination attempt investigation. Shizumaru tells him the lords responsible for the assassination have been arrested. There's some worry there may be a rescue attempt. Day 6 [March 27, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou continue hellriding. They avoid a war between bug-people and lizard-men in one of the shadows they encouter. The territory tends to be mostly jungle shadows, until things become more prehistoric. They break for lunch, and then ride on, getting briefly caught in a pitchblack no-magic no-trump no-real-tech shadow. Ukyou and Kanna manage to light torches and shift shadow to depart. They nearly get caught in a dinosaur stampede, and attempts to shift Shadow to escape do not work. As it turns out, they've ended up in End up in Dinosaur World, aka the Land of Losing Stuff. The two trump back to Lipun via Shizumaru. After resupplying, they trump to DOOM, spack some zombies and grunts, and hellride away. They start heading for the Second Key again, and camp on a convenient monolith. Day 7 [March 28, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou continue riding. The environment starts out weird and psychadelic, but starts becoming normal. Ukyou suggests that somebody may have placed something in the way to mislead them. They change their direction to riding towards 'The key that Kuonji is looking for,' which takes them off towards Chaos again. Along the way, Kanna learns more about Ukyou and how in his dreams, he's walked the Tir'na-Nog pattern without knowing what it really was. * Jacqui is finally trumped by Wakaba and pulled through. It is quickly revealed that her left eye has been replaced with the True Jewel of Judgement. While they try to cope with this information, their boat gets attacked by a nuclear submarine. It doesn't sink, but it is inconvenienced, and while they try to cope with the sub, Shaft starts to burn up. Hiko and then Nagisa are trumped in to try and help Shaft, and Utena tries trumping Kasumi -- who is also burning up, and then it is quickly revealed by Morgenstern that something is attacking the Shamber Pattern. Anthy is trumped through, and she trumps Utena, Moriya, Jacqui, Morgan, Yumi, Wakaba and herself to Shaft's mansion. * The group fights their way through Shaft's mansion, encountering the Real Bumpy the Pimp along the way. They reach the Shamber Pattern Chamber, where it is being attacked by some form of blood-slugs. Everywhere the slugs die, they damage the Shamber Pattern. Various means are used to eliminate the slugs, but it only destroys the Pattern further. Finally, the Jewel of Judgement in Jacqui's eye socket eliminates the rest of the slugs -- but too late. The Shamber pattern is 70 percent destroyed, and both Shaft and the Leather Knight are dead. Various folks are informed of their loss. It is revealed that Bumpy was kidnapped by a "Bandaged Freak" -- Lord Lowen of House Helgram. The fact that there's burned into the ground "Taylor wuz here", "The Lion Roars", and "Croatoan" hints that the Lion's Heir and Lowen are in leauge with each other if not the entire house. It is also discovered that Shaft's armory has been raided... which held Shaft's logrus blade. * Anthy, Jacqui, and Gabrielle go to investigate what happened to Morgenstern during this. As they head for Morgenstern's central CPU, his speakers start reporting a prophesy -- one similar to the third section of Kanna's prophesy, but decidedly more ominous as it seems to be instructions on how to ally with the Outsiders. Gaby finally torches one of the speakers as Morgenstern starts to come online. Gaby goes to work helping to restore Morgenstern, and he reports that somebody looking and having the knowledge of Annadil (who made him) had appeared and reprogrammed him, which was why he couldn't get a warning out earlier. Jacqui casts temporal scrying, which reveals an insane version of Annadil wearing clothing out of some weird bubbles reprogramming Morgy. Jacqui and Anthy find out that Jacqui's Logrus imprint has dissappeared, and it is decided that soon, Jacqui will be able to walk the Pattern and attune herself to the Jewel of Judgement in her head. Day 8 [March 29, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou continue hellriding. Shadow begins to become Chaotic as they approach the courts. The power of the Pattern becomes weaker as they approach the seat of the Logrus. They make camp on a 12-sided die the size of Houston. * Gabrielle trumps Jaqueline and Anthy up to the Fire Pattern of Ember so that she can gain a Pattern Imprint and attune to the True Jewel of Judgement. Jaqueline walks the Fire Pattern, and regains some of her memories, but parts are still blanked out due to her desire not to remember them anymore. The lost memories include what happened to cause Jaqueline to have the Jewel of Judgement in her left eye socket. Jaqueline and Anthy head back to Amber to get magical supplies from Wakaba. Day 9 [March 30, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou wake. Their die is about to be rolled by a giant hand, but Kanna manages to use ALL of her brainpower to edit the hand away. They ride on, more slowly this time, and the floating dice get smaller. Kanna manipulates the route so they find a pair of pegasi to use as mounts via flight. They encounter an ice dice hailstorm that's also a psychic attack, and Kanna has them retreat from it so they can rest and sleep for the night (Ukyou himself has no problems with the mental assaults). Day 10 [March 31, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou wake and ride off again, but this time the trail leads them in a totally different direction. They keep riding, however. Day 11 [April 1, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou continue hellriding, and start ending up in subterranian shadows. Day 12 [April 2, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou continue hellriding through subterranian shadows. Day 13 [April 3, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou continue hellriding through subterranian shadows. Kanna's pattern abilites begin to weaken -- and her patternsight shows that Logrus is beginning to weaken as well, thanks to somebody using extremely powerful levels of Logrus. Day 14 [April 4, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou reach a cave network and Labyrinth that's currently being blocked to Pattern and Logrus by a high-level Logrus user. Trump and Magic are not blocked. The Labyrinth itself leads to "The Third Key" which surprises Ukyou. The two proceed into the Labyrinth, leaving the pegasi outside, Kanna mapping and marking their trail along the way. They encounter some traps trashed by other folks exploring, and ones untriggered which they then defuse. Kanna realizes that the Labyrinth itself is relatively 'recent', as in constructed the past several years if not sooner. The two get caught in a combination psychic/physical trap -- Ukyou has a better time of it than Kanna does, and then teleports them out of the trap before gas can overwhelm them. Kanna desperately calls on Gabrielle's help, and gains psychic reinforcement. They get teleported again to above a pit trap, but Kanna manages to rescue the two of them, and then they shoot whatever invisible things were causing the psychic assault. They press onwards. * Kanna and Ukyou encounter an animated suit of armor and fight it, shutting it down. They encounter a Gelatanous Cube, and as it advances on them, Kanna uses her Gaby Manifestation to torch it utterly. They press onwards, and reach a chamber with three dragon murals (a dragon in flight, a dragon in its cave with casket and hoard, and a dragon burning a town), as well as a note in Sidar to 'Seek the way of treasure'. They touch the casket, which trumps them to a big black hole. Kanna has Gabrielle activate a flight spell, and then she catches Ukyou. They rescue another arrival to the blackness, Spellvis (a BP mage) who seems to know of Ukyou or someone related to him. They ascend upwards, and start smelling various scents. Ukyou and Kanna figure out that the route to sulfur and fire scents will lead them to their goal due to the dragon association. Kanna has Gabrielle protect them from heat and flame, and they fly into a fireball with a coin inside it. They recover the coin, and fly downwards to save a bear (Paddington Bear) who'd also stumbled into the trap. Kanna has Gabrielle trump them back to the Dragon Mural chamber. * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis reunite Paddington with his compatriots, the Shinsengummi Bears, who are tracking down the notorious thief Goldi Locks (who looks like a taller version of Nanami) and her band of Tcho-Tcho assassins, who had stolen all the honey out of Fort Pooh from the Hundred Acre Forest. Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis examine the coin, which shows the head of Anno, Keeper of the Logrus on one side and instructions in Sidar Runes on the other. The threesome and the Shinsengummi Bears part ways. They use the coin to open another door at a dead end, and head to an underground lake. Spellvis conjours a goldola, and they head out over the lake and choose a tunnel. They get attacked by an acid-spitting Black Dragon which smashes their boat; Ukyou and Gabrielle (in red dragon form) attack the Black Dragon and Kanna uses another flight spell to retrieve Spellvis and Ukyou. They fly down the tunnel, which leads back to the lake. land back at the docks, and tend their wounds and recover before deciding to explore the bottom of the lake, which holds another tunnel underwater. * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis swim underwater and reach the tunnel. They swim upwards, and surface in a fountain which has seven dragons in various poses, and thousands of keys on the walls. They start analyzing the keys and determine all of them are magicked in some way, and no way to determine if they're dangerous or not. Their investigations are interrupted by attacking conjoured 'bullywugs' (frog-men) from House Aleax, allies of House Nurgal of Chaos which they handily defeat. Another wave attacks, but Ukyou is unable to defuse the explosive rubies they carry in time, though they land in the water and start to sink. Kanna rips off part of the fountain to drop after the rubies, and Spellvis uses a telekenisis spell to catch the others. Kanna examines the Dragon- Hoarding fountain, and determines that the little cache of 'coins' it's guarding is a 50-50 gold/silver (electrum) mix -- and that ONLY one key on the wall matches that mix. Spellvis uses another teke spell to grab the key, which Kanna bags. House Aleax starts trying to dig their way through the underwater tunnel; Kanna has Spellvis conjure up a replacement fake key to put on the wall, and then the three of them trump back to the Dragon Mural chamber. Spellvis starts a tracking spell to find Ukyou's key and they head off into the maze once again. * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis follow the tracking spell, and encounter a conjoured dead-end. Gabrielle dispells it, and they head along further. They get attacked by Wind Elementals which Kanna and Ukyou fight, while Spellvis gets tumbled away. Gabrielle joins the battle as a fire elemental. Magical seeking lightning is shot at them, and Spellvis gets hit, but Kanna is able to defuse it with her spellbreaking weapons. Ukyou attacks the four mastiffs that then attack, while Gabrielle detonates to take out the remaining elementals. Kanna and Spellvis are nearly turned to stone, but Ukyou and Gabrielle manage to stop it and reverse the process. Kanna shoots the flying fists that then attack. One of their enemies tries to use an Akira spell, which fails and gives away their location. Ukyou charges for them and almost gets caught by liquified concrete. Kanna manages to extract him, but they both get magically tasered -- Kanna shrugs it off, Ukyou is rendered unconcious. Spellvis recovers and joins them just in time for the three of them to be attacked by a tidal wave of concrete. Kanna grabs Ukyou and Spellvis and runs like a mofo away from it. They run into the Knights of the Dinner Table (literally), who get flattened by the concrete, recover, and chase after Kanna and company. One of them sets off an explosive spell, which destroys the concrete monster and crisps Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis. Kanna has Gabrielle trump them to Corrine's beach house before they can get beat up further. * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis arrive in Corrine's beach house. Kanna sets Ukyou and Spellvis on couches so they can rest and recover, and gets ministered to by Gabrielle, who fills her in on the past week's events, including Taylor's appearance, Shaft's death, and the additional prophesy (though missing one line, though Kanna doesn't know this is due to Gabrielle still being upset and not wanting to admit she's fallable). They analyze the Third Key, which Kanna still carries, and discover it's a piece of the Logrus. They go to help Ukyou recover and discover that he's actually a she. Ukyou wakes, and they talk and get more information about his life history, and about his job as Keeper of the Gate of Referendum (though not explicitly about that) and hunter of Outsiders. Kanna and Gabrielle determine that he/she HAS walked the Air Pattern in his dreams and is apparently descended from the same line as Saionji, the house of Monde. He isn't -too- enthused about now being associated with Amber Royalty, perferring to work solo, but the discussion gets tabled for the moment in the light of more immediate concerns, like recovering the Second Key and after that, hunting down Taylor * Kanna and Ukyou make plans for finding the Second Key, and gain Spellvis's assistance for this part (though he insists on carrying the Third Key, which Kanna accepts). They make preparations, get Ukyou a trump deck (and Kanna a trump of Ukyou), more supplies, and Kanna makes arrangements for another shapeshift headband from Mia "just in case". She also get a repaired/replaced Gaby manifestation. Day 15 [April 5, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis start hellriding for "The Key That Ukyou Seeks" once more. Ukyou estimates 12 days, conservatively, until things get critical in Lipun. Day 16 [April 6, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis continue hellriding. Day 17 [April 7, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis continue hellriding. Day 18 [April 8, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis continue hellriding. Kanna realizes that they're heading for Dinosaur World again, and detours around it. They continue riding, at a slightly slower pace so as to avoid getting trapped like that again. * [Nausicaa Current] Day 19 [April 9, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis continue riding through rainforest/mountain shadows. Day 20 [April 10, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis continue riding through rainforest/mountain shadows. Day 21 [April 11, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis continue riding through rainforest/mountain shadows. Day 22 [April 12, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis continue riding through rainforest/mountain shadows. Day 23 [April 13, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ukyou, and Spellvis continue riding through rainforest/mountain shadows. They come across the Knights of the Dinner Table again. They tail them for a while, and then attack. Ukyou takes out the dwarf mage, Kanna and Spellvis attack the other three. Kanna kills/incapacitates the woman after she tries shapeshifting to a wolf and then gets hit with a Resume True Form bolt while she tries to hamstring Kanna's horse. Spellvis takes out the crossbow-wielding dwarf with a rain of notes, then Kanna pounds El Ravager II into virtual paste. They recover the Second Key, which is what Ukyou's looking for, and give the Third Key to Spellvis. They retrieve the loot, Spellvis examines it and departs after claiming a wizard's staff as loot, and then Kanna has the remaining loot sent to Ember to be examined as well. They bury the bodies,trump to the Amber Embassy in Lipun, talk with Shizumaru briefly, then ride off to the mountains. Day 24 [April 14, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou ride for the Omotaze Mountains in Lipun. Day 25 [April 15, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ukyou reach the Omotaze Mountains in Lipun. They head up through the ancient barriers to the Inner Barrier, where Ukyou then heads on through with the Second Key. Kanna waits there, promising to inform Anno in case things go wrong. Day 26 [April 16, 1332 AY] * Kanna waits for Ukyou, and watches as the top of the mountain gets nearly blown off by Outsider power. However, Ukyou manages to close the Gate soon after, getting jumped by a horror from Yenll in the process, but the threat is then locked away. Ukyou drags the carcass off the mountain and rejoins the group. Gabrielle takes the Outsider corpse off to be immolated, and Kanna takes Ukyou to Ember to rest up and heal after getting the Second Key. Day 27 [April 17, 1332 AY] * Kuonji Ukyou/Inji departs Ember before breakfast to grab a zeppelin flight to Ashante to investigate a Taylor sighting. * Kanna, Gabrielle, Nagisa, Shinobu Minor, Corrine, and the Red Knight have breakfast in Ember. Kanna tells the story on how she and Ukyou retrieved the Second Key and sealed the Gate of Referendum, which elicits concern from Corrine and disapproval from the Red Knight, who beleives it was all a scam. Corrine recommends heading back to the gate to check if it truly exists. Gabrielle then announces to the family that Nagisa is her husband and that Shinobu Minor is her daughter, and the reasons for them keeping it a secret. Kanna and Corrine discuss immediate plans, and it is decided to investigate the gate area the following day, and to ask Fuyutsuki for opinions on the Key and other things. Kanna also gets some information on some of the other people-images in her ZaZa fortune from Corrine. Gabrielle makes a trump of the final gate portal. * Kanna and Shinobu Minor spar, taking each other's mettle and developing a good Aunt/Neice bond. * The Lizardmen of Dinosaur World dig up the Shadow Theatre to extract the Lion Spikard of Dreams. * Jacqui meets the Lizardmen of Dinosaur World/The Living Land at the remains of the Shadow Theatre, and heads off with them with Utena and Wakaba. * Kanna, Shinobu Minor, and Gabrielle tour around Ember for a while before lunch, since Fuyutsuki is not immediately available. * Kanna rendevous with Beowulf and Lian and they discuss recent developments over lunch. Beowulf and Lian learn that Shinobu Minor is Gabrielle's daughter. Kanna learns about Beowulf's retrieval of the Lion Spikard Tirthos from CAFAM, the fact that the Urns were planted by Anno, leading folks to the resting place of the Dragon Spikard Hoard of the Dragon. She also learns some more of Jacqui's 'adventures' and the capture of Justice by Lord Alars of Chaos. Lian informs Kanna of the two constructs the Master was researching -- The Black Crown and the Heart of Ice, the former being an Outsider-build construct, the latter an ice and snow elemental construct held by Jadis the White, one of the possible Lion Spikard holders/competitors. Kanna then tells Beowulf and Lian about her own adventures in the past month, about Ukyou and their retrieval of the Third and Second Keys to the Hoard of the Dragon, and the closing of the Gate of Referendum. She also relates the information gained from Madame ZaZa and from Morgenstern... the latter which Lian links up with what she had researched at the Infinite Library -- the Prophesy Of The Dark Heart. Kanna learns that Beowulf knew BOTH Spellvis and a Kuonji -Inji- at Panopticon, and that the KoDT were likely working for the City of Brass. In trying to determine wether Kanna was scammed or not (as they go over the Dark Heart Prophesy), Gabrielle unhooks her limiters to recite her -own- Prophesy, of the reincarnated Menelcamar. Bey returns to Lily and Mitsune, while Kanna and Lian stay together for a while. * Kanna and Lian go to see Fuyutsuki about the Second Key, the Gate of Referendum, and information in Gabrielle's prophesy. They end up in the middle of DworkinCon, mistaken for other creators of universes. (there's 2 Gendo's, 11 Dworkins, 3 Fuyutsuki's (not counting the native one), a Drake, a Tenchi, at least two senshi-alikes, and a Tess in attendance). They meet Other-Lian and Other-Kanna at the end of the festivities, who were stuck in an eight-Outsider pileup and couldn't get to the convention in time. Kanna and Lian then ask Fuyutsuki about the Second Key, which he identifies as a Logrus tendril shaped into a key, and protected somehow from Pattern energies. They also ask about the Blessed Lands, and Menelcamar, and learn that he was the child of a god and a mortal; or in their case, -goddess-, as the Weeping Woman is revealed to be Nienna, the Forger as Aule, and the Deathlord as Mandos -- three of the Valar whom the Arden Elves once served. Fuyutsuki gives Kanna a coke and a map of map of Germany circa 1942. * Kanna and Lian chat with Corrine before dinner about recent developments. They inform her about their plans to check the location of the Gate, given Fuyutsuki's information about the key. Corrine recommends getting a Logrus-user's advice as well. Kanna gives Corrine a heads-up warning for events in the City of Brass, given the existance of the spikard-seeking KoDT in their employ. Lian and Kanna then warn Corrine about the existance of the Black Crown and Heart of Ice constructs. Corrine, in turn, informs them about the dissapearance of Shizumaru and Rimururu, the damage done to Kafuin, and the death of most of the Black Unicorn Amber forces, including Fiona. They also decide to check the Embassy in Lipun for clues on Shizumaru's dissapearance. Corrine recommends to Kanna that she ask the Arden Elves about the Menelcamar and Valar stuff. * Kanna, Lian, and Shinobu Minor eat dinner and recruit her for the investigations in Lipun and the quest to find the current Menelcamar. * Kanna gets her brain checked out, and walks the Fire Pattern to confirm her mind is clean. Everybody sleeps. Day 28 [April 18, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Lian trump to the Amber embassy in Lipun, encounter Moriya, Motoko, and Davros, and investigate Shizumaru's dissapearance. Davros reports that anybody could have made the keys, like the one she has, but that it was electroplated with Real electrum from the Amber end of reality to protect it from Pattern energies. Lian uses temporal scrying to observe Shizumaru's dissapearance (and Shizumaru and Rimururu making out about a week prior), and extract some mud from the Chaos side of Yig. Kanna tells Motoko about her adventures about the gate, and Motoko states she's never heard of such a place, and she warns them about Kuonji Ukyou. They then part ways. * Kanna, Lian, and Shinobu Minor. head to the Gate area and investigate. Lian's Farscrying of the top of the mountain reveals the existance of a Gate, and meet one of Kuonji's ancestors in spirit form, whose appearance was triggered by Lian's scrying. They learn more of learn more of Kuonji's plans by talking to his ancestor -- that he plans to manipulate Beowulf into retrieving the Hoard of the Dragon and then trying to use it to gain the werewithal to retrieve the Master Spikard from Outside (or the Gloom Device from the Abyss), using him as a judas goat. He also reveals that others had been working on their own plans for crippling the Outsiders, including Shaft and Juri. They learn that Taylor also has his hands on Annadil's notes, making him all the more dangerous. Further discussion is curtailed by the encroachment of the Machin Shin, the Black Wind of Madness, exploting Lian's mental scrying as a loophole. With Gabrielle, Pattern Defense, and Shinobu Minor persona-shifting into Nagisa, they manage to contain and destroy it. Shinobu-Nagisa teleports back to the Keep to continue repairing Kafuin, Gabrielle goes with to keep her out of trouble, and Kanna and Lian part ways for the afternoon. * Kanna arrives at the Arden Stronghold and talks with Hiko a bit about current events. She learns that Shaft had sex with Nienna, which makes him the likely Champion and the father of the new potential Menelcamar. She also frets about her being used by Kuonji to obtain the Second Key, and enjoys a bit of commiseration with Hiko. Kanna states her plans to go to Beleriand, and Hiko suggests taking Morgan along. Kanna grabs a late lunch, and then heads off to talk with the Arden Elves. * [Lian talks with her mom, Wasyuu.] * Kanna hangs out with the Funk Elves, learns about the recent upswing of cockatrices, and then goes to talk with one of the elven loremasters (Turgon) about the first Menelcamar. She learns that he was Tuor, the son of Beren and Luthien, who used the lone recovered Silmaril to lead the remainder of his people out into Shadow, where he then dissapeared. She learns how long the trip should be from Beleriand to the Blessed Realms -- approximately one week. * [Lian talks with Fuyutsuki.] * Kanna talks with Lady Yumi about the trip to Beleriand, and learns something about Morgoth's skill levels, strong in both mind and body, but not totally unbeatable. She also gets caught up on what the younger generation is doing. * Kanna does some more research on the history of the elves in Beleriand and their flight from Morgoth, led by Tuor. * Kanna and Lian re-rendevous before dinner with Corrine, and Lian tells Kanna about the fact that folks are competing to be the successor to Nyarlathotep. * Kanna and Lian have dinner with Corrine and the Red Knight. They relate their findings, and the Red Knight continues to not believe that the Gate of Referendum exists. Lian shows Corrine the prophesy of the Black Heart, and some more ideas are exchanged. It's also revealed that Corrine did know of Kanna's hanging from Yig. Kanna relates her conclusion that Shaft had an illegitimate son via Nienna, which surprises Corrine. Future plans are made, which will involve Kanna walking the Fire Pattern to teleport to Beleriand, and then trumping Lian, Shinobu Minor, and an Emberite ship to its shores to set sail for the Blessed Realm of the Valar. Day 29 [April 19, 1332 AY] * Kanna attempts several times to use a Fire Pattern teleport to Beleriand, and finds it to be spectacularly unsuccessful. They decide on a change of plans, and Kanna has the Fire Pattern teleport her back to Lian, and they regroup to do things the old fasioned way via Shadow-shifting. * Kanna, Lian, and Shinobu M. head out to the Fire Highway on the borders of Ember courtesy of a Gabrielle Trump Gate, and ride off into Shadow via Hellride to gain distance. Day 30 [April 20, 1332 AY] * Kanna and co start hellriding for a shadow with a time differential matching that of Beleriand. Day 31 [April 21, 1332 AY] * Kanna and co continue Hellriding for a shadow with a time differential matching that of Beleriand. Day 32 [April 22, 1332 AY] * Kanna and company reach a Shadow where the time differential is the same as that currently holding Shaft's child by Nienna (Beleriand). * Kanna shadowshifts a shoreline into existance, and has Gabrielle trump an Emberite ship and crew to the water. They trump onto the ship and start sailing. * Kanna, Lian, and Shinobu Minor sail for three weeks, finally reaching the oceans of Beleriand, but not reaching Valinor immediately. They sail west to try and find it. * Though, things don't seem to work out like they should... the Valar are keeping Valinor hidden and unreachable. More weeks pass as they try sailing and scrying for Valinor, with no effect. Gabrielle tries poking around with Advanced Pattern, and gets poked back by 12 somethings that she senses will get tetchy if she continues. * Kanna heads for the bowsprit and calls out towards the West, entreating the Valar to allow them to meet with Shaft's kid. Ulmo, the Lord of Waters, is sent to parlay. They find out that the child of Shaft and Nienna is a -woman-, and are escorted to Tol Ereesea to meet her. Kanna sketches Ulmo along the way. Day 33 [April 23, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Lian, Shinobu Minor, and Gabrielle reach Tol Erresea (the closest mortals are allowed to come to Valinor). They get escorted to a guest house, and wait there for several days. * Kanna and her cadre meet Moonshade, the daughter of Shaft and Nienna. After some bickering, they finally tell Moonshade that Shaft is dead, which ticks her off 'cause she wanted to take him out herself for having abandonded Nienna. Kanna and co give Moonshade time to vent. Afterwards, they give the story of Shaft's death, and learn that Taylor had attempted to enter Valinor, but dissapeared when they tried to interrogate him. It is hypothesized that Taylor may have been trying to reach Moonshade (for her blood), to grab the remaining two Silmarils, or to try and free Morgoth. They also learn that protections were placed on Beleriand and Valinor by the Valar Mandos and Manwe to prevent accidental intrusion by hostile parties after discovering Beleriand had been invaded by Annadil. Kanna shows Moonshade the family tree with her trump cards, pointing out her branch of the family. Lian goes and has a message relayed to Aule expressing her wish to meet with him. Kanna and Gabrielle ask Moonshade if she'd like to visit Amber, and then tell her some of the facts about the Pattern. They make arrangements to return to Amber. * Lian stays behind to meet and chat with Aule, and also keeps a hold of the Emberite ship and crew. * Kanna, Moonshade, Gabrielle and Shinobu Minor return to Amber via trumpgate and meet Anthy. Introductions are cut short, however, by Vash reporting that the Jewel Of Judgement has suddenly vanished. Anthy goes to consult with Tylor about this. They make arrangements for dinner later with Anthy, and go around to tour the castle and its sights. * [Jacqui, Utena, and Wakaba have their encounter in Dinosaur World, and get caught by the Gaunt Man.] * Kanna, Moonshade, Gabrielle, and Shinobu Minor run across Touga, who's recently returned. He chastizes Kanna for patternsighting him, and Kanna introduces him to Moonshade. They chat for a bit, and Kanna learns of his investigations of the spikard hunt, and she informs him of Beowulf's participation on the matter. They also learn of the destruction of the Shadow Theatre, likely due to a spikard buried there. Kanna also tells Touga how she got a bounty on her head. Gabrielle introduces Touga to her daughter, Shinobu Minor. Touga gets in a zinger on Moonshade before departing. * Kanna, Moonshade, and co go and see the Pattern. It hangs out, very Patterny. Gabrielle gives the usual warnings, but Moonshade decides not to walk it quite yet. * Kanna and Moonshade talk with Queen Yuriko briefly. Kanna introduces Moonshade to Yuriko, and gets more information on what the family's been up to -- and that the Jewel of Judgement has just returned. * Kanna and Moonshade spar. Moonshade's better with weapons, Kanna's better with strength. * Kanna and Moonshade have dinner with Anthy, courtesy of Gabrielle and Shinobu Minor's cooking. Anthy tells Moonshade about her father, with mixed reactions from Moonshade. She is pleased to hear about Shaft's martial exploits, however. Moonshade tells the story of how Shaft defeated Morgoth, and Anthy gets Moonshade into a pretty good mood. Tylor arrives, and informs the group that they believe that Jacqui, Utena, and Wakaba have been taken captive. Tylor asks Kanna if she has time to investigate this, and she accepts. Plans begin to be made, and Kanna learns of the planned construct raid on Ebenscrux. Kanna informs Tylor about the existance of the Black Crown. Gabrielle convinces Tylor to allow her to borrow the Metal Demi-Jewel. Kanna lets Tylor know that she'll hopefully have more definite plans on the following day. She also recruits Shinobu Minor and Moonshade. Kanna learns from Anthy that not only were the three spikard hunting, but that Jacqui had visited the Shadow Theatre, and Kanna informs them of Touga's investigations there. Gabrielle gives Moonshade a deck of Trumps, and this leads into a conversation about Kuonji Ukyou/Inji and Kanna's adventures with him/her. Kanna shows Anthy the Second Key, and she deduces that it wasn't made by her father. However, this doesn't preclude that Anno didn't hire out somebody else to make the keys. Kanna also relates Kuonji's possible desire to restore the power of the Air Pattern to its full potential, and Anthy suggests he would either be trying to rescue the White Knight from the Abyss, or to have the Air Pattern always permanently manifested. Gabrielle asks Anthy about "The Keeper Of The Keys", and she reports that Moriya killed him, earlier. * Kanna talks with Lian and Corrine about the current situation via Trump, updating them on Moonshade's arrival in Amber and Jacqui, Wakaba, and Utena's dissapearance, and gets advice on who to take when it comes time to rescue them. * Kanna writes in her diary and goes to sleep. * [Lucien Current] Day 34 [April 24, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Shinobu Minor, and Moonshade have breakfast. * Kanna, Shonobu M., Moonshade, Kozue, Touga, Misaki, Mia, Vash, and Sumire go to investigate the remains of the Shadow Theatre. They learn of Jacqui's visits there, as well as the Cyberpapists and the Lizardmen. They also find out about a visit by a group of four children, Medieval Bepedal Rabbits, and a rave. Mia shuts down the spell that caused the Shadow Theatre to be overgrown with plantlife, Touga edits the Shadow so that it's no longer breaking up, and they head back to Amber. * Kanna does a little investigation in the Library before lunch. She learns from Travis that there are quite a few cross-shadow capable medieval rabbits, and that the children are the Penvensy children from the Chronicles of Narnian -- which ties in with Jadis the White Witch, who currently controls the Heart of Ice. * Kanna lunches with Gabrielle, Touga, Moonshade, Shinobu Minor, and Sumire. During it, Kanna gets a trump call from Beowulf updating her on the Ebenscrux situation, the recovery of Drake, the near-appearance of Yog-Sothoth, the destruction of three of the Lion Spikards, and the upcoming trial of Shizumaru. Kanna informs Beowulf on her own doings, the retreival of Moonshade, the concerns about Inji, and the capture of Utena, Wakaba, and Jacqui. After the call, options are discussed for how to distract Inji while they're running around elsewhere. * Kanna reports on the results of the Ebenscrux raid to King Tylor, and then gets suggestions from him on what to do next. Tylor orders the recently-returned Drake to go along with them. * Kanna also reports to Queen Corrine, and gives a request for the Ember information network to start searching for the location of Pharoah Mobius. While it's not likely they'll find him, she does agree to start the search. Day 35 [April 25, 1332 AY] * Kanna's Kadre (Kanna, Sumire, Misaki, Mia, Gabrielle, Shinobu Minor, Moonshade, Touga, Kozue, Drake, Vash) trump-gate to the vicinity of the Shadow Theatre, and start Hellriding for Dinosaur World. Before they make camp for the evening, Kanna shifts the route to where the Jewel was teleported to by Jacqueline. From appearances, it looks like the locations are the same or in a straight line. Day 36 [April 26, 1332 AY] * Kanna gets Trump Call from Beowulf before the group heads out the next day. Beowulf informs her on how the Shizumaru trial went (50 years in the Black Tower for Manslaughter). Kanna then pulls Beowulf, Lily, and Mitsune through to join the group. * Kanna gets more information about Dinosaur World's setup from Mitsune and Lily. Gabrielle and Touga use the Demi-Jewel of Metal to set up a 'normal probability' zone where things won't vanish. Beowulf then goes and shows Gabrielle and Kanna the inside of his bag -- which actually links to a personal shadow, powered by a Trump Fount that he could possibly use to power a Construct. Options are discussed (and Gabrielle gets enough of a psychic impression to trump items to Beowulf's entrance hall), they exit. The group once again starts to ride off at Hellride speeds. * Kanna and company chat with Drake while they ride, filling him in on the various political situations and other developments during the last 40 years. Around lunch, Gabrielle informs him about John Valois walking the Pattern, Kanna informs him about the state of Therin, and discussion is made about what happened to Rebma. Further discussion is cut off by a (non-)random ninja attack, which they easily fight off. The ninjas were sent to try and take out Sumire, but obviously failed. However, they used construct manifestations in the shape of cellular phones to get from their home high-tech shadow. Beowulf fills in the rest of the group about the existance of the Black Crown construct, and then they start riding off again into shadow via Hellride. * The route becomes familiar for Kanna as that which she and Kuonji took to get to the second key (and ended up in Dinosaur World), and once again they get stuck in a pitch- black shadow. Touga reports that he's been encountering many shadows like this in the past 40 years, and Beowulf notes that this is what happens when a Construct drains too much power from a Shadow. The hypothesis is made that Dinosaur World quite possibly has such a construct within it. Kanna shifts back out to rain forest, and they ride on. * Kanna's Kadre reaches the remains of Dinosaur World's construct, where Jacqueline made her stand, shutting down outsider power there before attempting (and failing to escape). Prolonged investigation by the group helps to determine the likely course of events in the Shadow, and reveals the appearance of the Gaunt Man at the end. Further investigation determines that the Gaunt Man is the one who captured the trio, and that he quite possibly has his hands on one of the Dragon Spikards, the Claw of the Dragon (currently in staff form). * Kanna's group heads off once they determine that they've gotten all they could from the scene of the battle. Gabrielle burns the location to the ground, covers it with rock, and erodes the rock down into fertile topsoil. They take Mitsune's little Chibi-Dinoguy with them as a mascot. Day 37 [April 27, 1332 AY] * Kanna's group travels through foggy and rainy rainforest towards the Tenjou trio. Day 38 [April 28, 1332 AY] * Kanna's group leaves the rain areas, but continue to be in rainforest. Eventually, they get confronted by packs of werewolves who are trying to herd them towards a cliff. They fight them off, easily, and keep riding. * Kanna tries trumping Mikage and Falme, and gets no response. * Kanna tries trumping Misato, and she and Beowulf learn about the Book of Eibon being found under Jacqui's bed, and almost stolen by one of the Gaunt Man's flunkies, but failed. * Kanna's group continues riding, and end up in an earthquake zone caused by Cthonians (psychic tunneling Outsider servants). They take to the air courtesy of War Zeppelin Ajax. * Kanna's group sails on, and Kanna trumps Lian after dinner. Lian updates Kanna on what she's been doing with the Heart of Ice, and Kanna in turn updates her about their investigations into Jacqui's dissapearance. * The zeppelin gets nearly shot down by a surface-to-air missile attack, but the missiles are easily countered and the group launching them burned to the ground. The realization that the Airship AJAX is a giant target is missed by all those aboard as they sail off through Shadow into the night. Day 39 [April 29, 1332 AY] * During the 1 AM watch (Kanna, Mitsune, Gabrielle, Touga), the crew encounters another black sand drained shadow, and the Zeppelin starts to crash. Kanna shifts shadow so that they head back out into the jungle, which is successful... but the Ajax continues to crash as all technology and magic fails. The Zeppelin is long-range dispelled, and parachutes fail (which doesn't help most of the crew anyway, since they were long-range kept asleep by the Gaunt Man via the Spikard of Dreams) as people plummet. * Invisible airborne critters try to arrive and attack the falling group as Kanna and Touga are carried by Gabrielle, and a sleeping Beowulf and Lily are carried by Mitsune. Drake and Vash, who awoke upon hitting the ground, fight off werewolves who try to attack the remainder of the unconcious party. Kanna shoots at the airborne hostiles and then goes to reinforce Vash and Drake, while Mitsune works to recover her sister and Beowulf. * Kanna, Vash, and Drake fight the werewolves, but Drake is then drawn off by one of the Gaunt Man's minions wielding Utena's powers. Kanna, Gabrielle, and Vash try to get the remaining unconcious folks up into the trees. Beowulf and Lily wake, and Beowulf uses a racked magical sinkhole spell just in time to counter a spell set off by a compromised Mia Asua (whom Kanna then knocks out). Gabrielle then sets up a firewall dome to keep out the approaching Machin Shin. * Beowulf, Lily, Touga, and Mitsune start putting the wounded unconcious into Beowulf's bag. Lian recovers, and summons her mecha. Lian, Kanna, and Vash go off to assist Drake outside the dome, and find him skewered and without Werewindle. They quickly head back with the injured Drake, just as the Utena-boosted man is using Werewindle to try and kill Beowulf, Touga, Lily, and Mitsune. Mitsune stops the man by intercepting the blade thrust and yanking Werewindle out of his grip before becoming a flaming mist and flying inside him. Beowulf uses pattern defense to neutralize the flames buring Touga's chaos-based Blood body, and gets him stabilized. Gabrielle then uses her own Fire Pattern powers to neutralize the remaining flames. Drake is bandaged, as is Touga and Lily and Mitsune, and they are put in the Bag as well while Lian goes off to try and catch the Machin Shin in an Elder Sign Trap. * Kuonji Inji turns up on the scene, and challenges the Gaunt Man, engaging him in combat. * Jacquline uses her shapeshifting to extricate herself from the Gaunt Man's machines inside her cell, and summons the Jewel of Judgement to herself. * The Gaunt Man teleports away from Kuonji to deal with Jacqueline, leaving Kuonji free to strike at the Gaunt Man's construct. * Lian heads outside the dome while activating her trap, and is immediately set upon by another man stealing Utena's skills, who disables her Mecha. Vash has Gabrielle hand him the Eye of Metal, which he then uses inside his gun to shoot the second rapier-man, vaporizing him. Kanna heads off to recover Lian (carrying Werewindle and Sumire's naginata), and as they return, Gabrielle drops the fire-dome to set off a Pattern-slave. The entire shadow is cleansed of Outsider nastiness, evaporating the Machin Shin and the remaining werewolves. * Jacqueline fries the Gaunt Man with a beam of energy from the Jewel of Judgement, utterly destroying him in the process. At the same time, Kuonji destroys the Outsider construct at the heart of the Gaunt Man's shadow, and the power feedback from Gabrielle's Patternslave causes enough instability for the entire shadow to come apart at the seams and to be eaten by Hastur. * Jacqueline uses the Jewel of Judgement to teleport to our heroes in Shadow, where they are recovering from the Patternslave. Kuonji rescues Wakaba and Utena via trump, leaving them in a shadow full of Ladders and giving them a trump of Beowulf before he himself departs. * Beowulf and Lian head into the Bag to start healing people while Kanna, Vash, and Gabrielle stand guard. Kanna examines Werewindle and Sumire's naginata to kill the time. Wakaba and Utena escape their predicament when they trump Beowulf and are pulled through. * The group recovers enough to be amulatory (save for Mia, who will need brain cleaning) and exits the bag. Kanna, Lian, Jacqui, and Beowulf go and investigate the site of Jacqui's captivity, or try to, and find that it's no longer there. They then try to reach an adjacent shadow, and encounter an increasing slow-time effect. Analysis by Lian reveals that the Gaunt Man's shadow has fallen into a Temporal Black Hole of progressive slow-time. * Kanna, Beowulf, Lian, and Jacqueline return to the group. Introductions are made between Jacqueline and Moonshade, and Moriya trumps in (after Beowulf nearly gets Gatling-gunned through a trump conversation), and Kanna, Beowulf, and Moriya catch up on some things while various conversational threads are tossed about. Major smoochies are exchanged between Moriya and Mitsune. Folks begin plans for Marches (if they'll be there), and Kanna laments the lack of a date for her part. Kozue brings up that Ruka is wondering if he should ask Kanna out, and Kanna is not opposed to the idea. Moriya trumps back to Chaos, and the Kanna Krew heads back home to Amber to heal and to get brainscrubbed. * Wakaba, Utena, Moonshade, and Jacqueline walk the Pattern. Kanna gets the full details on Shaft's death. Jacqueline summons a patternghost of Shaft, and Moonshade tries to kill him. Jacqui, Kanna, and P-Ghost Shaft manage to talk with Moonshade while keeping her from killing the patternghost. They get out from the center of the Pattern, and head to one of the basement sparring rooms so that Moonshade can duke it out with P-Ghost Shaft. * After Moonshade gets her licks in, more discussion occurs. The possibility of Bumpy having something to do with Shamber is discussed, and it is decided that they'll investigate him that night. P-Ghost Shaft and Jacqueline share some parting words before P-Ghost Shaft dissipates. * Kanna, Jacqueline, Nagisa, Gabrielle, and Moonshade head down to the Ward of the Dead Unicorn and Bumpy's. They meet Bumpy the Pimp, and Kanna gets the story of how he was captured (the same as was told to Moriya and Motoko). During the talk, Gabrielle determines that one of his prostitute-bodyguards is a Logrus user and has some trumps on her. Jacqueline determines that that bumpy doesn't have any sort of Pattern imprint, but that he does have a slight connection to a 'pattern-pimp' somewhere. They then depart. * Kanna, Jacqueline, Nagisa, Gabrielle, and Moonshade head to Shaft's old apartment (and weapons cache) in the ward of the Dead Unicorn, and find it recently burned down. They investigate it, and after defusing a ward leading to the basement, they discover that all of Shaft's weapons have been stolen, but a bottle of vintage Kashfan wine from the time Van 'died' was left behind, along with a note presumably from Taylor. * The Dead U crew have a run in with the Crimson Pimp, someone who's been hassling Bumpy for the past month, and it is determined that he's just the son of a Haradian noble who decided his real calling in life is pimping. The group sends him off. * Kanna trumps Misato about the possibility that Taylor may use Shaft's invisibility cloak to try and do stuff in the castle. Gabrielle gets a psychic impression of Taylor to make trumps of him and begins preparations to try and force-trump him to Ember the next day. * Kanna gets a note by raven to meet with the 'Dread Recreational Pirate Roberts'. She and Jacqueline and Moonshade go to meet him. Kanna talks with him privately, he asks if she'd be interested in going into the pirating business with him (she isn't), and also asks if she'd be interested in a date for Marches. Kanna thanks him, and gives him a trump of herself (over Gabrielle's objections), and after smooching with him, departs. The trio head back to Castle Amber to sleep. Day 40 [April 30, 1332 AY] * Kanna trumps to Lian and Mechanus. While in fast-time, they plan for investigating and taking down the Heart of Ice. Kanna spars with Drake and gets her butt good-naturedly whupped. * Kanna, Lian, and Drake boomtube to a shadow adjacent to Narnia, where the Heart of Ice was. However, the environment is much different from what it was when Lian was there, now high-tech and high-magic (though still no trump). A Technodemon tries to attack them, but Kanna, Drake, and Lian take it down. They escape the area with their captive before being captured themselves. * Lian, Kanna, and Drake return to Mechanus. The interrogate the captive technodemon, and learn that he's a member of a race called the Tharkoldu, who won a war against humanity in their own shadow after their leader got a hold of the Black Runestaff -- an outsider construct manifestation -- which then allowed him to rewrite reality and start invading other shadows. * Mechanus goes to fast-time to prepare for invading Tharkold. Hiko is brought in case of the release of the Second Sun (which she knows the sealing ritual for). Lian prepares her forces, while Kanna is able to call upon half the Ember starfleet for an orbital strike. * Hiko informs Kanna about Morgan's encounter with Juri in Cathuria, and her current search for Merehallow, and her doubts as to wether Morgan actually -met- Juri or not, given the relative ease of her arrival. Kanna promises to look into it after Marches, if possible. Day 41 [May 1, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Lian, Drake, and Hiko initiate the Tharkold assault. * Kanna, Drake, and Hiko, on the Ember flagship Tsunami, lead the Emberite fleet through Shadow with Drake's massive Pattern skills. They encounter some resistance on the way, but it turns out to be relatively trivial. Once they start reaching shadows like Tharkold, Kanna signals Lian to begin her part of the assault. * Lian's forces boomtube to the shadow outside Narnia, and fight their way with some resistance (but not much, since the enemy wasn't expecting this) over the bridge connecting it to Tharkold. They get across, ending up in an area equivelent to St. Louis on Earth. The Tharkold forces start to rally and try to push Lian's forces back. * The Emberite fleet arrives at Tharkold orbit, and begin massively pounding the anti-aircraft and space defenses as Tharkold tries to fight back. They determine where Lian's group has arrived, and where the highest concentration of Outsider energy is on the planet (a place equivelent to Johannesburg). A Borg cube is gated in by Tharkold. Drake tries editing it out, but it comes back. Gabrielle goes to confront the cube, but is counteracted by the appearance of the Second Sun AND the Windwalker, who try to attack her. Hiko starts working on the sealing ritual for the Second Sun, while Kanna, Drake, and Lian rendevous at the central base in Johannesburg. * Kanna, Drake, and Lian fight their way through hoardes of technodemons and cyborgs through Warlord Kranod's base. Eventually, they determine the most likely place for him to monitor and bunker from the fight. Lian has a drone sent to hit a secondary control center, and then they press on to the last one. * Hiko seals away the Second Sun, freeing Gabrielle to fight the Windwalker (and gains some assistance from Vector Prime.) * Kanna, Drake, and Lian reach the central control area. Drake fights Warlord Kranod while Kanna fights a ressurected Jadis and Lian takes out the cannon fodder. Kranod dispells all conjured items, but this doesn't hamper our heroes. Drake shorts out Kranod's cybereye, and then orders Hiko to long-range-nuke the North Pole, where the Heart of Ice has likely been transplanted. This then gives an opening for Gabrielle to return attention to the folks below, once the Windwalker is pacified. She pies Kranod, blinding him the rest of the way for Drake to carve him up with Werewindle. Kanna goes all out to finish Jadis, and gets her left eye poked out and some brain damage for her trouble. However, Jadis dies (again). The Black Runestaff is evaced to Mechanus, and Kanna is evaced to the Tsunami. Lian and Drake boomtube back to the Invincible (Lian's flagship), after which a nova bomb takes out Kranod's base. * Lian and Drake rendevous on the Tsunami to see how Kanna's doing. Kanna is determined to have a degenerative brain disease placed there by Jadis when she poked out Kanna's eye, but said disease can be counteracted. The group heads home after Lian asks Adm. Sasami to nuke Tharkold down to asteroids. Day 42 [May 2, 1332 AY] * Kanna is treated by Lian, Gabrielle, Dr. Tofu, and Jessica de Alkirk to clean out the brain damage and heal her enough so that she can walk the Fire Pattern to complete her restoration. Kanna spends the rest of the day resting and recouperating, her left eye still damaged for the moment. Day 43 [May 3, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Lian breakfast with Corrine. Corrine fills them in on Juri of Avalon, Gideon, and Roderick's return to Avalon with Horatia -- and that they spent several decades in an Outsider-controlled universe. Their current plans are related to Corrine. Kanna learns that the chaosian they encountered as one of Bumpy's guards is reporting to somebody in House Nergal, who is against House Helgram. * Kanna and Lian bop to Mechanus to get samples to get a new eye grown for Kanna while in fast-time. Kanna talks with Lian briefly about her momentary depression when JuriAv/Roderick/Gideon's exile in the Outsider-controlled universe was mentioned. * Kanna gets trumped by Beowulf, and then pulls him through. Kanna, Beowulf, and Lian trump-gate to Kanna's rooms, and meet Aeris. They inform Beowulf about the assault on Tharkold and the reason for Kanna's eyepatch. Beowulf then informs them about the Alars situation and Lord Alars' death at Morgan's hands. Gabrielle takes Aeris on a trump tour while Beowulf, Kanna, and Lian discuss the situation further. Beowulf also tells the two about the possible reappearance of the Elemental Priestesses from the Keep as the wives of noted Chaos lords. Kanna informs Beowulf of Corrine's theory that Rei, the Priestess of Fire, was also once a Princess of the First Ember. Kanna learns that House Alars also currently holds Merehallow. She then also learns that Morgan has returned to Amber, AND that Beowulf tried to reach Cathuria, having tried to aid Bessie, the Cow of Atlan Tepes, in trying to reach Juri. Beowulf proposes his Art Museum of Shadow project, which Kanna feels her mother will willingly support. They try to discuss possible options to appease the Forestals of Yig. Beowulf then brings up Taylor's annotations of the Black Heart prophesy, the possiblity that Taylor is Shaft's son, and that Wakaba believes that Bewoulf is the Unicorn's Heir. Kanna relates her own current analysies. * Beowulf gets a trump call from Motoko about finding the casket with the Hoard of the Dragon Spikard. She also informs Beowulf about Lord Alars's apology to Beowulf for attacking him through trump earlier. * Kanna and Lian manage to get some information out of Gabrielle on how the force-trumping of Taylor went. Gaby is clearly not happy with Taylor, but the two of them manage to get her to untense, especially with Lian's ideas for growing a fresh body for a blood creature (such as Touga), and Kanna's own thoughts of Gabrielle's capacity for creation and nurturing. * Bewoulf reports on Motoko's report, and the planned negotiation for Hoard of the Dragon. Kanna admits her feelings of siblinghood to Beowulf and Lian. Immediate plans around and after Marches are discussed. The four then discuss Taylor's annotations of the Black Heart prophesy, the possibility of Kuonji being the smiling slayer (and Kanna's chat with Patternghost Shaft). This Then leads to a discussion of Taylor's last comments, and that the possibility exists that Taylor was a secondary personality to Jacqueline, possibly purged when the Jewel of Judgement took up residence in her. Lian then Boomtubes back to Mechanus to do research and check on Kanna's eye. * Beowulf, Kanna, and Gabrielle discuss the constructs Vector Prime and Aeris, and the developments that lead to them being built. Beowulf asks Kanna what she would want to do about Hoard, given everything, and she responds that she'd have to think about it. Gabrielle mentions that Ishmael and Wakaba may have met once, back in the past when Utena rescued Wakaba from Chaosian Experimentation. They then part ways for the day, after an exchange of reassurances. * Kanna goes down to Amber and reports to King Tylor about the the results of the Tharkold assault. She then does some reasearch on the Logrusfoils and the Eye of Sarlaac in the castle Library, and doesn't find out much more than she already knew. Day 44 [May 4, 1332 AY] * Kanna gets her new eye installed in Mechanus. * Kanna gets asked out by Ruka for Marches. Kanna accepts. Day 45 [May 5, 1332 AY] * Kanna checks with the Amber Harbormaster, and finds that the Dread Recreational Pirate Robert's ship, the "Risky Chance," is registered to an "M. Peebles". * Kanna does more research on who hung from Yig, and how to appease the Forestals. In the process, she learns that Haruka and Sakura also hung from the Tree of Wisdom, along with Drake and Shizumaru. She doesn't learn why, however. * Kanna chats with Anthy about Chaos, learning of the Royal Heraldry College, and the fact that she'd need a letter of recommendation in order to actually enter it in any particular span of time. * Kanna buys an Emberite Support Terrarium with tools, Ember Plant Gardening books, and various seeds and soil/ plasma as a gift for Anthy to give later. * [Morgan ends up in CAFAM and tries searching for items to lessen the dire effects of the Blood-curse.] Day 46 [May 6, 1332 AY] * Kanna does shopping in Amber City, buying Begman roses for Miki, a Bonsai for Moriya, and a nice painting for Lonz. Day 47 [May 7, 1332 AY] * The festival of Marching, the day before the Amber military campaign season begins. * [Events of Marching -- Read The Logs!] * Kanna and Ruka head out to one of Ruka's ships and weigh anchor just outside the bay, to spend the night together intimately. While they sleep, somebody cuts the anchor line and sets them adrift across Shadow. Day 48 [May 8, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ruka wake up adrift at sea across Shadow, running ahead of a storm. Kanna tries shifting Shadow to get back to Amber, but this only makes things worse as something pushes back, and edits in hostile sealife. The ship is hit by whales, which causes it to start to sink, and Kanna calls on Gabrielle to torch part of the ship to create a Fire-Pattern gate. The two escape before the ship sinks. * Kanna and Ruka end up in Gabrielle's quarters in Ember, and breakfast with Gabrielle and Nagisa. Gaby informs Kanna that a Logrus User was the cause of their going adrift. They discuss the current Lucien/Water Jewel situation, which discomfits Ruka a bit due to conflict-of-interest issues. Kanna relates some of her future plans to Gabrielle, and Gaby gives Ruka a full trump deck. Kanna also learns that Nausicaa has the Wings of the Dragon. Gaby asks Kanna to do research on Nemuro Hall. Kanna and Ruka finish breakfast, and depart. * Beowulf and Lily wake up and have breakfast, courtesy of Beowulf's Magic Bag. They discuss some of the pairings of Marches, and current behaviour of their close relations, and some of the plans of other people to go investigating. They then end up meeting with Moriya and Mitsune when they got to talk to Yumi and Travis, and discuss the Dinner's events and Lucien/Nagisa. Beowulf then discusses the Ashante and Pharoah Mobius situations with Yumi and Travis, and his plans for a museum of cross-shadow art. * Kanna and Ruka discuss Gaby's declaration about the Water Jewel. Kanna relates Roberts's plans to grab the Eye of Sarlaac, and also asks Ruka if he'd want to escort her to High Summer, and he agrees. They then head down to Amber with the roses for Miki. * Kanna gives the Begman Roses she promised to get to Miki, as well as the trumps she'd borrowed, and then talks with Miki, Madoka, and Mutsumi about some of her current plans. Kanna talks with Miki a bit about Chaos, and the political alliances involved with Tremere, Darios, Fomorian, and Alars. Kanna scritches Tama-Chan for a bit, and then heads off. * Kanna eats an early lunch in her mom's rooms in Castle Amber. * Motoko trumps Kanna. The two have a conversation, and Motoko informs Kanna that both Anna the Librarian and Madame ZaZa were actually blood-creatures made to infiltrate and mislead the royal family. Kanna, needless to say, is upset about this. Kanna and Motoko also have a discussion about Kuonji's behaviours and intentions. * Kanna trumps Lian, and brings her up to speed with the events of Marching and Lucien's boorishness, some info about Nausicaa's adventures in Leng, and the fact that she's got the Wings of the Dragon spikard, as well as other things. Lian mentions her Touga Body project and Spikard project and possible trip to Kadath, and Kanna in turn informs of her plans to train in fast-time (and possibly be a vacation for Lian and herself), and then hunt down any blood-Talors who might plot to chop down Yig to get the Wood Demi-Jewel, taking down Sumire's ninjas, etc. * Kanna meets with Moriya, who's out in the Castle courtyard doing unarmed katas. They sit and chat about the current events and their future plans, and Kanna gives him a Bonsai for having taken out the Cyberpope, et. al. Moriya elbows Kanna a bit about her association with Ruka, good-naturedly, which prompts a decent blush from her. They also discuss future trips to Chaos. * Moriya has his brain checked out by Wasyuu, and then walks the Metal Pattern, with Kanna spotting for him. Nothing bad happens, save for a bit of Moriya angst. * [Morgan gets Bushwacked by Stagger Lee in CAFAM, and barely escapes to Amber. Hiko examines Morgan mentally, and finds out what he's been up to.] * Kanna encounters Thoric and Misato, and gossip about current events (Marches, Morgan, etc) over a game of fizzbin. Kanna learns that Morgan ended up being bloodcursed due to them trying to get around the Serpent and steal Merehallow instead, and had just recently appeared again in Amber. * [Morgan retrieves her sword through shadow-tricks, and finds a Jewel attached to it. She takes it back to show her mother and as she unsheaths it, the gem unleashes Primal Chaos, just as the Green Knight enters the room.] * [Morgan awakes in Chaos, captured, along with Hiko.] * Kanna and Drake discuss the current Lucien/Rebma Situation in her mom's rooms in Castle Amber, and Drake's intentions to remove the Rebmaquois and place Yuriko on the throne of Rebma if Lucien is not up to the task of reclaiming the city. He also states his current plan to aid Beowulf and Keitaro on their attempt to take out Pharoah Mobius, before heading out. * Kanna heads back up to Ember, and begins her preparations for her training trip. She trumps her mother, and fills Corrine in on the various things she's heard during the day, especially those with a possible political/diplomatic impact (Lucien's 'worthiness' for Rebma, Gaby's plans to snatch the Jewel for Nagisa, Morgan's ever-increasing levels of screwup and having killed Alars). Corrine reassures her, and thanks her for the update, and hints that some good news has been reported to Sumire. She then wishes Kanna luck on her trip. * Kanna eats dinner. Oh, the drama. * Kanna packs the rest of her gear, trumps down to Amber, and walks the Metal Pattern. In the center, she gets a Patternghost of Gendo, and asks various questions of him (What he encountered to get Justice, if he knew about Ember's destruction and when it was in Amber-time, if he knew about Haruka's Hanging from Yig and why, and the intention behind the 5 children of Haruka and their element pairings). * Kanna gets trumped in the middle of this and patched into a mutual trump call between herself, Jacqui, and Beowulf. Jacqui updates them on the location/direction of the missing spikards, and the convergency of their missions. Jacqui also shows Kanna and Beowulf an 8-year-old Motoko. * Kanna finishes the conversation, and then says her goodbyes to Gendo, giving him a hug. She then has the Metal Pattern send her an ideal place for her and Lian to train and explore in fast time, as well as for her to forge Beryllina. * Kanna ends up in Gold Digger-Jade near Seer's Hamlet. She eventually meets Julia Diggers during her years of trying to find a cure to her 'curse' that prevents her from reuniting with her family (save for one day a year), and begins to train and improve her combat skills under her. * Julia Diggers is cured of her 'Curse' (she was actually phased), and returns to Gold Digger-Earth after the events of the Lich King saga. Kanna takes this time to finally quest for the elements and components needed for her to forge her dream-weapon, "Beryllina", using them and her original shapeshifting weapons and the Hackmaster. Day 49 [May 9, 1332 AY] * The Tournament of Arms and the G'nolga/Tirant crisis occur on Jade. Kanna hears about it, but is only able to arrive in time to witness the final rounds of the Armsmaster Tournament. * Kanna calls Lian, and pulls her to Jade to meet the Diggers as they're preparing to investigate the Nomad Artifacer artifacts. * Kanna and Lian do much interesting investigation. Kanna also improves her mental skills somewhat with Lian's assistance, while she also trains Lian in combat. They find out that the Nomad Artifacers were fleeing the Shadows which tried to invade Jade, who were serving something called 'Mageddon the Warbringer' and draining shadows to try to revive it. However, the natives of Jade, led by the First Armsmaster, armed with Nomad Artifacer Magi-Technology, were able to fight them off. * Kanna uses the Pattern to set GD-Jade and its linked shadows to Amber-time. She and Lian leave Jade, and find birds of desire to send a warning to the Forestals of Yig of the possible attempts of the Blood-Taylors to try and down Yig. * Kanna and Lian get trumped by Gabrielle, and they head back to Ember to talk about the possibility of Taylor having been an alternate personality of Jacqueline's, brought on by walking the Logrus in her earlier years. Discussion is made on what to do with this knowledge and who to tell, as it's still all supposition. * The Red Knight arrives, and after Kanna gives him a quick hug, informs them that Green Knight isn't taking calls, and that he's worried about what may have happened to him. They then go to seen Corrine, who tells them about strange reports of undead in Arden, and the fact that Hiko and Morgan aren't taking calls. Kanna and Lian agree to go investigate. * Kanna, Lian, and Gabrielle arrive in Arden, pulled through via trump to Random, one of the Rangers of Arden. Random tells them of an explosion at the main lodge, totalling it, and the spread of the necromantic taint around that area. Gabrielle trumps them closer to the lodge, and find that the forest's been warped by such magics. They briefly confront a bunch of Dorian undead and a cockatrice, then deal with a herd of Patternbison coming to deal with Gabrielle, which the Wood Pattern perceives as a threat. Kanna has Gabrielle demanifest, and then they continue travelling towards the blast site. * Kanna, Lian, and Random reach the crater, and figure out how far the taint has spread. Lian counjures up a viewing platform and mirror, and they use temporal scrying to observe the events of Morgan arriving at the lodge with Tyreein and the Logrus Jewel Bomb, the detonation with him and the Green Knight and Hiko at ground zero, and the arrivial of gargoyles which then trumped away with Hiko and Morgan's barely-alive bodies, but not before spreading lots of necromantic magic around. Lian decides to work on a spell to purge the taint -- in the interim, Kanna calls Fingolfin and gets updates on the status of the rest of the rangers, coordinating cleanup operations with him and Gabrielle. * Kanna leaves Lian to her work and spars for a while with Gabrielle to vent. They then end up having a sisterly chat and discuss things in their lives and what they may be doing in the future. They then go and have dinner. * Kanna and Gabrielle return to Arden in time to watch Lian trigger her spell, which purges the necromantic taint from the forest. They then head back to Castle Amber to get Lian something to eat, catch up on various things that've been happening in Amber and where folks are, and then get a good, long, night's sleep. Day 50 [May 10, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Lian, and Gabrielle breakfast with Tylor, Yuriko, and Corrine. The Morgan situation is discussed with them, and Fingolfin is selected as a temporary warden while Tylor's agents work to figure out where they've been taken (though the leading suspect is House Alars). Gabrielle then mentions the Helgram/Nurgal spy wars focussed on Bumpy the Pimp, and Kanna mentions the possible Elemental Priestesses having married into major houses of Chaos. Kanna describes her immediate plans, and also hopes to somehow get back Merehallow, before they finish breakfast. * Kanna and Lian prepare for travel, and then trump to CAFAM. They fight off a wave of Confederate soldiers at the doors, and then do some shopping inside CAFAM, buying an infinite donut for Vash, and some various niceties for casual reading and gifts for Ruka, before heading back out. * Kanna tries shifting Shadow to get to the Blood Taylor who wants to try and down Yig, and find the trail leads them back to CAFAM. Kanna and Lian head back in, and start searching through the store for him. Day 51 [May 11, 1332 AY] * Around the next morning, Kanna and Lian track down the Blood-Taylor, in the gardening supplies area. However, it turns out he was laying in wait for Kanna and company from the previous day, given the presence of CAFAM security guards and the KoDT also there, ready and waiting to arrest "Dread Pirate Kanna". Kanna tries to recover the situation, but things just continue to go downhill despite her protests, Gabrielle's flexing of Ember muscle, and thanks to Taylor's maneuverings. She does give the +12 Hackmaster back to El Ravager, though, before she and Lian go off with the guards to the CAFAM security offices to get their identities checked out. * The CAFAM guards trump Nanami and bring her there to examine Kanna, Lian, and Gabrielle. Nanami tells the guards Kanna's from 'QEmber', and manages to get them out of being arressted, pretending that Kanna, Lian, and Gabrielle are actually from a flawed Amber/Ember, and therefore not the ones the CAFAM guards were looking for. She also clarifies the state of blood creatures being responsible for the crimes of their progenitors, even if the original person is is dead. Kanna, Lian, and Gabrielle leave CAFAM so that Kanna can vent a bit while Nanami stays behind to settle some more diplomatic/criminal stuff. * Nanami trumps Kanna, and Lian and Gabrielle listen in, as they discuss what happened. She suggests setting a trap for the Blood Taylor now that he's presumably bought his 'weedkiller' for Yig. The fact that the head of the KTC seems to be spreading the wanted posters for Kanna, etc, further than expected is also discussed, as is some of Gabrielle's theories that Taylor and Jacqueline were the same person (as nanami had samples of Taylor's blood as well), although the fact that the Blood Taylors blood matches that of Jacqui does not necessarily imply it, as anybody with sufficent shapeshifting skill could make creatures out of Jacqui's blood. Nanami does ask if they manage to catch this particular clone that she be contacted. * Kanna, Lian, and Gabrielle discuss plans on how to intercept this particular Blood-Taylor. They decide to find an 'ideal' place to Ambush them in Shadow, using stealth Peebochus to watch the incoming route and then to later assist with taking the bad guys down. They ride off into Shadow on horse and mecha once Lian uses Mechanus Fast-Time to build the peebochus. Day 52 [May 12, 1332 AY] * Kanna's group arrives in a forested valley with a wide road that can be blocked off with peebochu-triggered tree-falls. The forest cover provided plenty of places for sniper fire. Kanna trumps in Pirotess of Ember to assist, as well as 20 Emberite guardsmen. Kanna adds hungry wolves to the shadow to help block off the wooded portions, while Lian modifies the Peebochus to be able to work in the low-technology shadow. Kanna walks shadow for a bit to plant the spy peebos and returns. * Kanna's group waits. Finally, the spy peebos report that the Blood Taylor's caravan is arriving. Once they enter the shadow, the ambush is triggered, Gabrielle magic-negating a good portion of the caravan's contents while Lian activated a Shadow Shotgun which then ripped apart the rest of the caravan and El Ravager. The Blood-Tylor uses the logrus to protect himself and send commands to his Logrus Hounds, which Gaby tries to disrupt. Meanwhile, Kanna knocks out Thorina, and Lian tosses holy hand-grenades to thin out the hounds. Pirotess tries to command the wolves, but is then confronted by a -second- El Ravager who attacks her. Two invisible Teflon Billies start laying fireball supressive fire while Lian and her mech gets logrus-grabbed by a second Blood-Taylor (the actual ringleader). Kanna tries to assist Pirotess (who is now also trying to fight a second Thorina), but gets a pair of shortswords in her back, taking out a kidney, courtesy of twinned Knuckles. Kanna starts fighting the pair of dwarven theives, but finds herself tasked. Gabrielle snowcones one, which helps to even the odds, allowing her to eviscerate one Knuckles and KO the other. Kanna runs to assist Pirotess, who gets taken down with a leg wound, drawing off the second El Ravager. Gabrielle sics a carniverous cake on Thorina, which starts to eat her legs. Kanna shatters El Ravager's Hackmaster and beats him down into unconciousness. About this time, the first Blood-Tylor starts trying to cast spells, which Gabrielle continues to disrupt; unfortunately part of her attempts are thwarted by the remaining cloaked Teflon Billy. Before Kanna's able to take him out at range, Gabrielle torches the Blood Tylor, which in turn activates his Zero-Option spell. The area is flooded with an expanding sphere of electricity -- Kanna manages to survive it and protect Pirotess in the process, shielding her with her body. The remaining KoDT members, the Emberite guards, the wolves, and the remaining caravan guards are all killed. Lian returns, having managed to capture the other Blood Taylor. Gabrielle cleans up the local environs from the spilled weedkiller, and they Boom-Tube to Mechanus to interrogate the ringleader Blood Taylor. * Kanna, Lian, and Gabrielle trump in Nanami to assist with the Blood Taylor interrogation. They learn he was created five years ago, updated with information from the Master Taylor, was assigned the task of downing Yig with assistant Taylors, and continued on his task even though he hasn't heard from the Master Taylor in over 50 days. Once all their questions are asked, and samples are taken, the Blood Taylor is killed. * Kanna heals in Mechanus Fast-Time, and teaches Beryllina several new forms while she heals up. * Kanna trumps to the Shalomar naval base as they're gearing up to deal with an impending Sea Peoples attack on the Isle of Emeralds. She drops off her information on Dread Recreational Pirate Roberts, and her copy of 'The True Tale of Pirate Queen Kanna' to Ruka as a gift, and then waits in a meeting room for Kozue to arrive. * Kanna tries trumping the Green Knight, and gets no response. However, she expects this. * Kanna tries trumping Corrine and Catherine, and gets no immediate response. However, she finds out through Gabrielle that this is because they are in the bathroom and hang-gliding, respectively. Kanna waits for Corrine to call back. * Corrine calls Kanna back. Kanna informs her about her successful completion of the stopping of the Yig-Taylor, and the multiple appearances of the KoDT. Corrine suggests Kanna investigating the City of Brass, as there have been KoDT sightings there. Corrine also finally informs Kanna about Morgan and Hiko's sworn service to House Alars to end the feud. Corrine suggests retreiving the house's Logrusfoil to recover Merehallow by making the trade, but Kanna then remembers that right now -Lowen- holds that blade. Corrine also mentions the appearance of a dozen Borg Cubes that tried to attack Arrakis; although they were fought off, this could stand to be investigated. Kanna postulates that this could be linked to the Black Runestaff construct that was used by Kranod. The trump call finishes after a mutual exchange of hugs. * Kanna trumps Yuriko, and learns of the doings of the Amber fleets, and the fact that Nanami's been purging Blood-Taylors from Amber -- including Ryo Saeba, one of the royal special ageints. Kanna gets informed that they've been reprogrammed to serve as bait. Kanna is relatively clear to continue Construct/Herald hunting, as Morgan has been found (otherwise, Kanna was likely to be tasked with that.) * Kozue arrives to talk with Kanna. They discuss Dread Recreational Pirate Roberts and his possible goals and motivations and his attraction for Kanna, and the possibility of pirate-hunting once the Isle of Emeralds and the sea peoples are taken care of. Kanna then informs Kozue about the fact that Juri of Avalon having gotten home. Musing on ways of getting to talk with them again are then made before Kanna and Kozue part ways. * Kanna heads to the Ember Embassy, and talks with Sumire over dinner about her relationship with Drake and Nabiki. Kanna also finds out that she's walked the Metal Pattern, thanks to patternsight. Some discussion of Werewindle is done, and the possiblity that perhaps Drake -did- make it, as a Patternblade would shatter when its original Pattern was smashed. However, there continues to be insufficent information to confirm/deny this. Discussion turns towards Sumire's Ninja problems, and the possibility it could be tied to the destruction of Drake's Marketplace. Kanna learns of the logging operation on Endor, and Sumire's leading of the charge of the Ewok Brigade. Kanna and Sumire then spend the rest of the evening gossiping, chatting, and relaxing, as it'd been a long time since they had a chance to talk. * Kanna heads to bed up in Ember and sleeps. Day 53 [May 13, 1332 AY] * Kanna eats breakfast, and then trump calls Lian to give her an update. Kanna learns of the re-grown Touga, and then tells Lian of her prior day's conversations with people. Ideas are made for future missions -- investigating the City of Brass, the Kranod Construct, and possible Outsider/Marketplace connections. They make plans for travelling to Kadath once Kanna completes her day's investigations. * Kanna walks the Fire Pattern to 'back up' her past 20 years of experiences on Jade, and the completed Beryllina. She has the Fire Pattern send her to her mom's beach house to allow her to start searches in shadow. She observes shadow-dwelling beachgoers from a distance, and then goes and gets a horse to ride with. * Kanna tries to shift shadow to get to the original Phoenix Egg that Juri had used to send a message to Corrine, and fails. She then tries shifting for a Phoenix Egg that -could- guide people towards Cathuria, and gets a lock on one. She rides for an hour, stops, has Gabrielle take a psychic impression for later trumping, and then takes a break. * Kanna then starts searching for any other Blood-Taylors planning to down Yig. She gets no response, and then tries to get a bead on the nearest Blood-Taylor who had gone AWOL who'd originally been assigned to down Yig, and succeeds. She starts hellriding through Shadow until lunchtime, where she takes another break to make some calls. * Kanna trumps Drake, and learns more about the Endor takedown. She offers hers and Lian's help when it comes time to smackdown the company that had sent the ninjas after Sumire, which Drake accepts. Drake provides suggestions on several companies to examine in the shadows near where Marketplace was, and Kanna learns some of the specifics about the original Marketplace, and the extent of its destruction by the Logrus Squid. She also compliments Sumire's achievement on Endor, and gets a return compliment on Thoric's military leadership. She promises to call back once she has more information on the companies if she can find them (as well as location for a beachhead for the takedown). * Kanna trumps Mia to ask her to work on another shapeshift headband, and agrees to pick up some salamander eyes for her when she can. * Kanna then trumps Ryoko, and learns more about the Borg Cube invasion of Arrakis, and that they were led through Shadow, though they didn't find any evidence of who was doing it (probably disguised on one of the cubes and now dead), and how the Borg were faked out into believing Arrakis had destroyed cubes before. Kanna has the information forwarded to her, and gives Ryoko some carrots to feed Ryo-oh-ki. * Kanna rides the rest of the day to try and find the AWOL Taylor, but doesn't reach him. She has Gabrielle mark the place, and then trumps to Jade to pick up some nice herbal tea for Nanami and the Salamander Eyes for Mia, and then has dinner at one of the inns in Seer's Hamlet. She trumps back to Ember, and gives the eyes to Mia. * Kanna trump-calls Lian before going to bed. She updates Lian on the day's events and researches. She passes over a copy of the data forwarded by Ryoko for Lian to peruse. The decision is made to head to Kadath the next day, and Kanna asks Lian to make another armored jumpsuit for her. They finish the conversation, and Kanna writes in her diary before heading to bed. Day 54 [May 14, 1332 AY] * Kanna wakes, has breakfast, and picks up the headband from Mia. She gets geared up and then trumps to Mechanus. Kanna, Touga, Lian, and a recruited Thoric boomtube to the shadows outside of Narnia, where stranded Tharkoldu Synthcylers are clearcutting the forest. Lian has Vector boomtube Hunter-Killers in to deal with the machines before they head off to clean up the remains of Narnia. * Kanna, Lian, Thoric, and Touga begin hellriding to Kadath, after attempting to reach the Knife (which fails). They encounter a shadow-battle between dark-skinned pale-haired men and satyr-like creatures, but they manage to back out in time and go around it. They continue riding for the rest of the day, and then camp for the night, taking shifts. * During Touga and Lian's watch, they pick the sounds of a fleet sailing offshore. Touga determines that it's 30 ships, and Lian performs a farscry while Touga wakes Thoric and Kanna. Lian determines that the ships are being rowed by Outsider monstrosities. They quickly confab, and decide to capture the ship's satyrlike captain to interrogate him, since he's also an Outsider Sorcer. He's teleported over, as well as a box of items, and Kanna shoots him in the arm with Beryllina. This and his knockout attempt sends him into a coma, and Lian eats his mind. She learns that the captain was sailing from Leng for a base up the coast, and then onto a place called Dylath-Leen to buy slaves. The ship itself is being rowed by outsider creatures and outsider-powered shadow travel. The box is revealed to contain an outsider spellbook, money, a shadow key, and an ebon rod used to control the rowers. The group then takes out the fleet, sinking it and destroying it utterly. * Kanna's group rides off through shadow to make another camp, and sleeps peacefully the rest of the night. Day 55 [May 15, 1332 AY] * Kanna's group wakes and rides off again towards Kadath. They often see black ships near the coast. Towns are occasionally encountered. Around three PM, they realise they haven't gotten any further. After checking to see if they're off track or not, Gabrielle determines that the shadows beyond along the path are shadow-key-locked. Lian has Vector remove the key from the previously retrieved box, and gives it to Kanna to lead the ride further. The group starts to enter the Cold Wastes. * Kanna gets a trump call from Jacqui along the way, and gets informed about the former's recent adventures in Mystara. Kanna also learns that Jacqui is hunting two blood Taylors who plan to try and awaken Mageddon. While Kanna is unable to immediately come, she offers to help once the trip to Kadath finishes, and brings Lian into the conversation due to the mention of Mageddon. Kanna gives Jacqui advice on how to deal with Blood Taylors, and more information about Mageddon. She also gets informed about Anthy not taking trump calls recently. Kanna notices that Jacqui's wearing a Black Rose Signet around her neck, but says nothing. The conversation ends, and they ride on. * Kanna's group rides off through Shadow into the foothills bordering the Cold Wastes and the mountains beyond, and make camp for the night. * Kanna and Lian chat during their watch. They reminisce about Jade a bit, and Lian relates some of the things she's learned about Mechanus' ties to the Nomad Artifacers after getting back and examining Vector's files -- apparently Mechanus was used as a residence and shipyards, and the Ark plans may still be somewhere in the planet's shell. However, it'd take a long time to search; Kanna suggests to Lian that she have mapping peebos do much of the grunt work, which she then has Vector implement. She also discusses Jacqui's current plans and Gabrielle's concerns, and the worries about Nemuro Hall. Kanna expresses her worries about the shadow-locking around Kadath, and wonders if it's a setup to allow for Kanna to have a destiny, which Lian discounts, given the sheer number of shadows blocked. Beryllina's effectivity in combat is discussed, which segues into reflections on how much Gabrielle observes Kanna's doings, which then transitions to Kanna remembering the first time she made love, with a friend who was another Ranger in Arden during the time she served as one. They spend the rest of the time reminiscing about their adventures on Jade before going to bed after their watch. Day 56 [May 16, 1332 AY] * Kanna's group wakes the next day, and finds that the sun isn't coming up... which is what's supposed to happen, as Kadath's a Land of Eternal Night. And apparently, the keying was not there the last time Lian had been in the vicinity of Kadath. Kanna has Gabrielle provide illumination during their Hellride to make it safer. * Lian has the Dragon Knight boomed in and the sabretoothed bears boomed back, and they take to the air to make the travel over the mountains easier. Gabrielle continues to provide light as they fly. * Kanna's group encounters a group of 15 Gug giants (beings that worship the Great Old Ones) about to attack a village in a valley. The group manages to handily eradicate them with Beryllina Crossbow Bolts, spells, and flaming Glaive. They fly onward after Gabrielle incinerates the bodies. * Kanna's group continues flying, eating in midair along the way. Eventually, they encounter some odd magical-creature filaments, who apparently feed on magic, as they take up pursuit of the Dragon Knight across Shadow after they try editing/flying around them. With Beryllina bolts and Gabrielle magic negations, they managed to wound enough that the rest turn and flee. * Kanna's group begins to encounter Outsider-energy-charged clouds as they fly. Kanna tries using the Pattern to edit the weather, and is successful for the moment, using Gabrielle's boosting to keep the air clear. Thoric suggests that perhaps Kadath is under siege by the Outsiders, given the sealed shadows encountered so far. * Kanna's group encounters an Outsider ritual in a forested valley, attempting to call upon Shub-Nuggarath, the Great Mother. After some deliberation and long-range analysis, they decide to disrupt the ritual and free the remaining 39 innocent sacrificees. Touga sets the forest alight with flame, Gabrielle evacuates the surviving innocents to the village encountered earlier via Trump (with Thoric assisting), and Kanna takes out the head priests and chanting cultists. The operation is successful, with a handful of cultists fleeing into the burning woods. The group departs before they get too innundated with Outsidery rain. * Kanna's group continues to fly onwards towards Kadath. They begin to encounter discordant flute and pipe music, which Gabrielle tries to counter by playing on her trump guitar. Thoric joins in with his violin, and they manage to hold off the effects for a time, until Oliver Cromwell appears and kicks Thoric overboard. Kanna chops Oliver Cromwell in half as Lian sends the Dragon into a dive to catch Thoric. They manage to recover him, though Thoric's lost his violin. * Kanna's group finally begins to reach Kadath -- which is currently being surrounded by a massive Outsidery barrier. They make an abortive approach, cut off due to the altitude and thinning air, and pull back in shadow to refresh and discuss alternatives. * Lian lands the group on a mountaintop. Gabrielle brings up the plan to make a trump counterharmony to punch through the barrier, but that she's only got one set of hands. A comment by Thoric leads Gabrielle to trump in her first girlfriend, Cait O'Riordan and her band, the Pouges. This is not met with total enthusiasim by the rest of the group, but Kanna at least gets to meet Cait at last. Touga and Thoric rack more spells while Kanna convinces Gabrielle to just bring Cait along and leave the rest of the Pouges behind, as there's too many risks to them in flight otherwise. Gabrielle sends the rest of the Pouges back, gives Cait a trump Guitar, and they all get on the Dragon Knight again. * Kanna's group (Kanna, Lian, Touga, Thoric, Gabrielle, and Cait) flies for the outsidery barrier once again, with Kanna up front to shadow-shift and shoot. She takes aim on one of the frog-flautists maintaining the barrier, killing it and causing the barrier to become weaker at that place. Gabrielle and Cait go full bore on playing Musical Trump Energy, and blasts a tunnel through the barrier. Lian flies the Dragon Knight through the tunnel while shielded, and they break through to Kadath. * Kanna's group does an overhead flyby of a magical palace below them. The place is -covered- with Elder Signs, but when they land in the palace's courtyard to set up camp and scout around. Surprisingly, Gabrielle and Vector's manifestation connections are still active, and a trump-call to Kafuin to ask him his opinions about the place is successful. Which, given that the palace appears to be abandoned, is decidedly odd. Lian attemps a mapping spell for part of the interior, and finds that magic is blocked within the palace as the spell fails. They decide they'll need to explore the old-fasioned way. * Kanna's group explores the palace of Kadath, finding the place dusty and cobwebbed. Paintings and tapestries depict gold- skinned humanoids fighting the Outsiders and teaching younger races. Finally, they reach a meeting hall, where 12 of said humanoids -- the remaining Elder Gods -- slumber in a deep stasis. Lian and Touga try a mind-probe, and discover that the 12 remaining Elder Gods are using their combined power to hold back the siege barrier and Outsider influences, but have had to focuss everything into that effort. Further attempts at communcation are cut off as they shift their entire focus to defense, and the group heads outside to try and deflect the attack, discussing options. * Once outside, Kanna's group discovers that a massive charge of Outsider Energy is building above the palace. Lian starts setting up an Elder Sign Field in the Dragon Knight, while the rest prepare to shoot the creators of the charge. The Dragon Knight transforms to dragon form, everybody boards and gets tied down, and Kanna has Gabrielle plug her manifestation into the Dragon for extra power. Lian lifts off and activates the Elder Sign Field, and charges through the upper field. Once above, they determine that the frog-flautists are also creating the Outsider Energy Charge; Kanna starts shooting them with Beryllina while Touga lofts spells and Gabrielle and Cait provide extra defense with trump music. They manage to disrupt the spell, but this causes it to trigger prematurely. Lian shifts the Dragon Knight out of the Shadow before they can be caught in the blast. * Kanna's group recouperates. Lian casts another farscry and determines that Kadath and the palace is still intact. Further probes are barred, so they fly back again. The palace is coming back to life, already magically cleaned, and the 12 Elder Gods are waking up. Introductions are made, and Kanna summarizes the past decade's events, for Kadath has been under siege for ten years. As a reward for their heroisim, Kanna, Lian, Touga, and Thoric are entrusted with the Knife, and Lian is allowed to stay in Kadath to learn about Elder Sign Lore while in a shadow-pocket-study shifted to fast time. * Kanna, Touga, Thoric, Gabrielle, and Cait return to their respective kingdoms to rest and sleep. Kanna writes in her diary before going to bed. * [Morgan Current] Day 57 [May 17, 1332 AY] * Kanna wakes, eats breakfast, and then goes to walk the Fire Pattern to get her brain and body cleaned of any Outsider energies that might be remaining. She then trumps Jacqueline to offer her help with her investigations of the two Blood Taylors "Jay" and "Silent Bob", and learns that Kuonji Inji has offered to help as well. Kanna gives her guarded approval of accepting his help. Jacqui requests a brain-check for herself and Moonshade... and this leads to the discovery by Gabrielle that they've currently got hordes of nanobots infesting and breeding on them. * Kanna and Gabrielle board Jacqui's ship, and soon determine that the entire ship is infested (Kanna's protected by a fire shield). Kanna has Gaby send a sample of the nanobots to Mechanus for later analysis, and then Jaqui's group heads to Ember to walk the Fire Pattern to get themselves fully cleaned out while Keitaro gets cleaned out by magic. Gabrielle and Morgenstern purge Jacqui's ship while they wait. Once cleaned, Jacqui's group heads back to continue the trip to the Akashan Leauge while Kanna goes to make more preparations. * Kanna goes to Lady Funaho to get identity papers prepared for herself, and gets more information on the state of the Leauge and Ember's relations with them, as well as how they do investigations and arrests. So informed, she then goes to talk with her mother about her current doings. * Kanna and Corrine meet in her office. Kanna summarizes her trip to Kadath and shows off the Knife, which elicits much interest from Corrine. They discuss Kanna's future plans, and her opinions on Kuonji. Corrine then tells Kanna the full report of the current situation regarding Hel and the Day of the Dead -- this is taken about as expected (shock and dismay) by Kanna, who tries to help support her mother anyway. Some possible options are considered and then shelved for the moment for getting help from across the universes. Kanna has her mother take strong psychic impressions of the Knife and Beryllina to make trump sketches so that if people try to steal them, they can be trumped back to Ember. Kanna then heads down to Amber via her mother's rooms in Castle Amber. * Kanna runs into Beowulf while heading for Fuyutsuki's. She backs up with him to her mom's rooms to discuss current adventures and events, especially the Mystara debacle and the reports of the Land of the Dead. She reports on Panopticon's compromized state (given that's where the nanobots were implanted), and warns Beowulf about CAFAM and Horatio Wapole. Kanna gives some more insight and asks questions of Beowulf on his experiences in the Dream Land of the Dead, given her ties to the Harad line. * Kanna talks with Fuyutsuki, and helps him put together a bicycle. She gives him Lian's gifts (a T-Shirt and 12 action figures of the Elder Gods), and tells him of their adventures in Kadath. She also gets more advice on how to use the Knife, and information on Mageddon, and how its Shadow-shifting powers were purely magic-based. She meets the Luggage, and when trying to examine it almost gets her eyes poked out with logrus tendrils. She then learns that Kuonji likely has the second key, as suspected. Kanna then departs. * Kanna goes and heads to Jade, sets it to fast-time briefly, gains a release for some of the Nomad Artifacer gear (mostly armor and weapons, especially space-capable), and recruits Gina Diggers. She also tests to see if the 'second key' she was given is the real deal via Shadow- walking. The test fails, as expected, and Kanna sets Jade back to normal time before trumping herself, Gina, and the Equipment to Ember. * Kanna gets Funaho to work up papers for Gina and the Nomad Artifacer gear, as well as her weapons and suitable wrappings for them. * Kanna and Gina trump onto Jacqui's ship, and Kanna provides some more information about Mageddon and the Leauge. She has Gabrielle bring aboard the Nomad Artifacer gear. * The group assembles on the Brown to start a breifing about Akasha and the potential threat of Mageddon. * While waiting for Kuonjiu to trump her, Jacqui accepts an unknown trump, and nearly gets primal-chaos gemmed by Davros of the Serpent's Horn. However, she has Morgenstern close the connection before the gem can fall through. * Kuonji trumps Jacqui and is brought onboard. Her appearance is not taken well by Shinobu Minor and Keitaro. * Gina and Kanna give a quick breifing on what the group can possibly expect in Akasha with regards to the environment, and the potential threat of Mageddon, and what its servitors did on Jade. The group takes a break for a bit. Kuonji makes scones. * Kanna and Jacqueline go and ask Kuonji to apologize for her behaviour towards the family (and the 'accidental' death of Keitaro) in Mystara. The group reassembles, and Kuonji gives a polite, yet piss-poor 'apology' to Keitaro, which Keitaro rejects. Keitaro tells Kuonji off, with Shinobu Minor's support, while Mutsumi tries to mediate everything. Eventually, the decision is made that Kuonji must leave. Kuonji does. However, Keitaro still has doubts about Jacqui's fitness for command, and Jacqui tries to prove her loyalty by stabbing herself with Justice. Her blood ignites, but Kanna and Gabrielle snuff it. Jacqui goes to be in seclusion for a while, and Kanna handles the negotiation of customs. * The MBSF James Brown exits the wormhole to the Akashan League and Aurora local space. * Jacqui's team clears Akashan customs, and they set sail for Aurora, one of the 12 Leauge worlds, to make contact with the Monitors HQ to inform them of their concerns. * Kanna chats with Gina after doing some sparring. Gina is not too impressed with Jacqui and Keitaro's behaviour, but is willing to stay on the mission for now, pending any more blowups. * The ship lands. Kanna, Gina, Jacqui, and Mutsumi go to see Deputy Chief Monitor Katar Hol, to explain to him the Jay/Silent Bob/Mageddon situation. While Jay and Silent Bob cannot be held accountable for crimes caused by their creator (Taylor), and have not yet caused any crimes within the Leauge itself, Hol will discuss the Mageddon situation with his superior in the hopes of gaining cooperation with the rest. They also get instructions to some good restaraunts, and where to pick up Commtrols to aid in communication. * Issues of telepathic privacy come up regarding the Commtrols. While it's debatable it will be of use, Jacqui convinces Gina to try and work on some form of Psychic "Firewall" around the devices. * Kanna gets trumped by Lucien. They discuss Lucien's plans to infiltrate Rebma to determine the numbers and forces allied with the Bloc. Kanna continues to offer her support for the infiltration mission once she finishes with the League. * Jacqui and Mutsumi discuss current events, and sex manuals. * Jacqui gets trumped by Beowulf about the situation at Panopticon. * Jacqui, Kanna, Mutsumi, and Gina get back to the MBAS James Brown. * Jacqui trumps off to deal with red Tape at Panopticon. * Kanna does Quecha Industries research, determining the Nanobots they produce are off-the-shelf, but could be modified after purchase. * Jacqui comes back, somewhat fried. Kanna gives her report on Quecha. Jacqui rests from being zapped and partial blood loss from Patternblade. * Kanna gets report back from Shinobu and Keitaro about suspicious current events. Such as the fact that the former Prime Minister were killed off by an attack of Byhakee. The rest of the information of the past few months is not noteable. * Kanna rests after having written in her diary. * Jacqui and Kanna's group wakes the next day. The morning news is of D'Arden Industries buying one of Sentinel's moons to turn it into a giant pleasure planet ('Jacqui's House of Extreme Pleasure and Many Willing Bitches'), run by J. Smith (aka "Jay" of "Silent Bob"). Kanna, Shinobu Minor, and Keitaro bring Jacqui up to date on the prior night's research. It is also noted that the government is stepping up places where Wormholes could be created. Kanna asks for research on the history of D'Arden Industries. * Kanna trumps Beowulf to update him on the situation. They get more information on Davros of Serpent's Horn. * More research occurs, as well as Patternsearching via Gabrielle and Pattern Lens. Jacqui reveals to the rest that Silya, the Spikard of Wood, is perhaps within the Akashan World Tree. * Research reveals that Taylor and his 'family' have been within Akasha for 500 years, and that they've recently started some lucrative mining ventures in the SK-4 system. Kanna does more general research (some of it not pertenant to the issue at hand). Gabrielle reports the presence of many Logrus Users... about 20+ on Akasha Prime, 3 on Blin (the university world). The Holy Tree is confirmed to be the resting place of Silya. * Jacqui and Gabrielle have a Heart to Heart. Gabrielle's probes determine that Mageddon is likely within the SK-4 system. Morgenstern is on red alert, and gabrielle hacks ThinkNet. * Mutsumi trump-contacts the Akashan Holy Tree, and gets various Akashan gear trumped to her. * Kanna and Jacqui's group departs Aurora. They go and assist the Holy Tree (via a two-step trump jump) while Morgy sends a decoy ship to distract from the route of the cloaked MBAS Brown. They talk with the Holy Tree of Akasha, and prepare to serve as the tree's defenses. * Keitaro and Mutsumi do a trump scry of the Akashan Emperor, and determine that he's clear of influences. They arrange for subtle backup and extra protection of the Greenhouse the Holy Tree is in. * The decoy ship gets blown up by the Akashan Navy 2 days after it was launched. * Jacqui and Kanna's gang fights off the first group of Chaosians, which were disguising themselves as gardeners. Jacqui and Mutsumi brainthrottle the sole remaining survivor, and learn that House Tremere has compromised the Taylors, and therefore the rest of the government. The group from Tremere is led by a Chaosian Lord named Gaav, a rather ruthless sort. * Kanna and Jaqui's group makes plans to try and catch some of the remaining Tremere folks before they can alert House Tremere or Gaav. Kanna and Mutsumi will confront one Chaosian in one location on Blin, while Shinobu Minor and Keitaro will confront the other. * The attempt is made to capture the chaosians on Blin. Kanna and Mutsumi fail to catch one, while Shinobu M. and Keitaro kill the other after a protracted air vent crawl. Meanwhile, the Akashan Sun is induced to go Nova (via Nova Bombs), and Gabrielle, Morgenstern and Aeris first work to sheild Akasha Prime before the shockwave hits. The inhabited planets are protected, but the orbital colonies, ships, uninhabited planets, and the D'Arden Pleasure Planet are vaporized. Then Gaby starts building a new sun. In the interim, somebody trumps in a primal chaos bomb which when tried to trump out by Aeris, explodes. Aeris and Mutsumi try to contain the detonation, and Morgenstern joins in with Justice. They manage to shunt the explosion away before they crash. * Kanna, in the moments between Sun Nova, Sun Restoration, and the Primal Chaos Bomb, comes to the watershed realization that she Loves both Ruka and Lian. She writes in her diary about this while Gabrielle scans the shadow again for any sign of Chaosians. * Kanna and Jacqui's group continues planning. SK-4 is examined remotely via gabrielle's probes, and they determine that a Stargate large enough to move a planet through is being built. Options are considered on how to get there. * Kanna and Jacqui's group, aboard one of the Akashan Priesthood's treeships, go to SK-4 via fire-gate. Several hours of scanning and analysis of the area follows, inconclusive; until they finally determine that stargate ring is being built around an -old wormhole-. The conclusion is made that this is the 'scab over reality' where Mageddon somehow went through the wormhole there and that it got closed behind Mageddon. * The Funk Fleet is trumped in, and destroys the stargate ring. * Kanna and Jacqui's group makes more preparations (like planting gravitic drives on one of the massive planetoids on SK-4-6), and then Gabrielle and Mutsumi open the wormhole gate themselves. A probe is launched through the opened gate, and several hours later the probe reaches the other side -- a totally closed and inert-matter universe. Which also has a rapidly approaching planetoid -- Mageddon -- moving at superluminal speeds for the now-opened gate. * The gate is opened further, and SK-4-6 and probes are sent through the gate towards Mageddon on a collision course. Once Mageddon enters the gate, Gabrielle closes it, which causes the destruction of SK-4-6, the probes that were transmitting back imagery, and Mageddon itself. * Jacqui and Kanna's group returns to Akasha Prime to wait by the Holy Tree, ready to protect it against any reprisal attacks. The location of two of Gaav's flunkies is detected in a stellar nebula, and Gina hypothesizes that they could be using Logrus to turn it into antimatter to dump it on Akasha Prime and recover the spikard from the ruins. Gabrielle and Morgenstern begin to work to induce the nebula to collapse around the two chaosians while forming a new star. Jacqui summons the Jewel of Judgement to turn off Logrus in the shadow to make it easier for the star to form. While this kills off the hidden logrus constructs in the greenhouse, this leaves them open to a Byahkee attack. The Funk Fleet and the Greenhouse Defenses attack the Byahkee, and then Outsidery bubbles begin to form around the defenders. Jacqui shuts off Outsider Power, which gets rid of the bubbles... and kills off all the Byahkee. A rain of dead Byahkee hits the greenhouse, shattering it. In the confusion, while Jacqui starts working on shutting off Logrus again, a hoarde of attack badgers attack the group. Jacqui gets her right arm and both legs bitten off while she tries to escape, and goes to Primal form to save herself. Moonshade runs the lead badger through with Justice, while Gabrielle summons the Jewel of Judgement to herself and finishes shutting off Logrus. The two chaosians in the nebula get fried as a star forms around them. The lead badger is revealed to be the now-dead Gaav. Day 58 [May 18, 1332 AY] * Jacqui, Kanna, and their team spend another month-plus cleaning out the remainders of House Tremere and Blood Taylor involvement in the Akashan League. Much information is obtained about d'Arden's operations in the League (which is now useless, as they are purged), and no information is recovered about the House Tremere involvement (because they didn't keep records that way, and those that knew are now dead.) House Alars pulls out, abandoning their support of the organized Lorbaat, which falls before the might of the League. Day 59 [May 19, 1332 AY] * Kanna talks with the Holy Tree of Akasha before the group heads back home to Amber. She tells the Tree the history of its 'heart', Silya, the Unicorn Spikard of Wood, and how its history ties with that of her own family. Kanna gets images of the 'Sidar' who helped plant the Holy Tree, and notes that they bear marked resemblances to the Elder Gods and Arden Elves. Various options of how to protect the Tree are discussed, and then Kanna and the Holy Tree part ways amiably, with an open invitation for Kanna to come back and talk at any time, and for her to offer her help again should the Tree need her. * Kanna learns that for some reason in the past, after Beowulf's time in Panopticon, Kuonji was nationalized as an Akashan citizen for some great service to the Akashans, but can't get details. * Jacqui, Kanna, Mutsumi, Shinobu Minor, Keitaro, Moonshade, et. al. return to Amber. * Kanna goes and talks with Corrine during lunch, and updates her on the Akashan situation. Corrine informs Kanna about the escalation of the Merehallow situation, that it has been stolen by the Serpent's Horn, and some of its members, including the False Eowyn.. Kanna in turn tells her mom about the reason -why- the groups were in the League... to get Silya, the Spikard of Wood, which was in the Holy Tree. Ruka gets brought up, and the idea of a fast-time vacation for them is suggested. Kanna also mentions her plans to try and infiltrate Rebma with Lucien, and various concerns are brought up (and trumps are planned to be made by Corrine if places she knew there) before she departs. * Kanna reports in with Nanami, giving her POV on the Akashan situation and giving her teas from Akasha and Jade. They discuss the reasons why Jacqui was originally sent on the mission, given the original information, in order to boost her confidence. She also gets an update on the general Taylor situation before departing. * Kanna trumps to Yig in order to give Moriya a heads-up on possible fallout of the Akashan situation, and possible Tremere/Outsider involvement. Kanna learns more details on the Serpents Horn attack, and the plans of Beowulf and co to get Daffyl's eye. Kanna -also- learns that Lowen does NOT have the Alars Logrusfoil, and instead will be helping with the attack against the Land of the Dead. She gets clarifications on the Chaosian laws of property- claim in battle, and that a Second Phoenix Egg has been found. The two part ways; Kanna back to Amber, Moriya back to Chaos. * Kanna trumps to Nagisa at the Lighthouse of Cabra, and talks with him about the ocean, islands, Rebma, and information about Rebma's state before it was claimed by the Bloc and what information he has about Dolphin, about her suspected Logrus use and Chaosian allies. They chat a bit about the Akashan adventure and her plans to go scout Rebma and recruiting Ruka to help out. She then talks about Jade and her adventures there, which interests Nagisa. They bond a bit, discussing ways of remembering those left behind in shadow, and then Kanna heads out. * Kanna trumps Kozue to talk about hers and Lucien's plans to sneak into Rebma, and her desire to recruit Ruka. Kozue gives her permission. Kanna gets some more information about rumors regarding the Bloc and Rebma's current state. * Kanna trumps to the Shalomar naval base, and offers to make Ruka dinner while he tries sorting out quatermaster reports. She makes spaghetti and salad for the two of them, and she tells some of the story of the Akashan mission and something of her general lifestyle and her feelings on those who stomp over shadowdwellers to get items of power. She then brings up Lucien's mission, and asks Ruka if he can come along. Ruka agrees, to Kanna's relief. They talk some more, and eventually Kanna asks if she can stay with him that night. * Kanna and Ruka go off, and make out in his rooms. * Kanna learns some of Ruka's personal history in Amber's navy as they chat in bed before falling asleep. Day 60 [May 20, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ruka wake up, get changed, and then eat breakfast. They go over Rebman maps made before its dissapearance, and discuss various options on how to get in and get out of Rebma without alerting the Bloc (and how to get out FAST should they be alerted). They finish breakfast, and then go to get Lucien et. al. before seeing Yuriko. * Kanna and Ruka meet with Lucien, who's coordinating underwater wargames in preparation for assaulting the Bloc-Occupied Rebma. Lucien is understandably somewhat paranoid about trumps and power use, but brings them through the Trump connection to discuss things, like their concerns about the Bloc having Outsider or Chaosian support. They make plans to head to Derith's Mansion in Nedra the next day, to see if there's anything left behind that could be used. They also agree to go talk with Yuriko before they proceed. * Kanna, Lucien, and Ruka watch the underwater Wargames, which take up most of the afternoon. * Kanna, Lucien, Ruka, Morrigan, Kitiara, and Pirotase meet with Yuriko, to talk about Rebma and its layout and their plans to infiltrate. Yuriko gives what information she knows, as well as a trump of her room to use if need be. Gabrielle confirms that it's still active, but doesn't spy further. Lucien entrusts Yuriko with the Water Jewel before they head out. * Kanna, Lucien et al return to Atlantis to rest up and prepare for the next day's journey. * Kanna chats with Ruka about the situation, about terrorisim, politics, the Bloc, and Dolphin/Ynell, and what to do about her. Kanna also sketches Ruka a lot during this. She shows off some of her sketches to Ruka, including one of Derith's mansion from Corrine's paintings, and one of Mutsumi in her Akashan kicking-butt costume. Kanna loans the Knife to Ruka for the upcoming mission. Kanna learns about Lucien's brainmunching at the hands of Dolphin/Ynell, and is concerned about what affect this has had on Lucien. However, they then go to bed to relax for the night. Day 61 [May 21, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Ruka, Lucien, Pirotase, Kitiara, Morrigan get geared up and trump to Amber. Kanna gets the trumps requested the day before from her mother, and gives her a quick update on some of the theories surrounding the Bloc. Gabrielle trumps them to within the boundaries to Arden in the south- east. * Kanna, Lucien, and co ride through Arden, and begin encountering the Red Death fungus. Morrigan takes to the air and determines the entire coastline is blocked off. They decide to trump further down, between Florence and Mystara, and make a sea approach from there. * Kanna, Lucien, and co camp and rest for the night before moving on. Day 62 [May 22, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Lucien, and co wake, break camp, and then trudge on through the remains of the shadow of Mu, using water- breathing spells to keep going all right. They travel through recovering seaweed forests, and eventually encounter dead sea creatures caused by some sort of lightning-throwing underwater predators. Pirotase casts lightning protection spells, and they press on. * Kanna, Lucien, and co encounter then avoid magic-eating Will o' the Wisps in the water, and continue on to the border of Mu and Nedra, marching on through the night. Day 63 [May 23, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Lucien, and co start encountering coral reefs and coral forests that mark the border of Nedra. They work their way through one of the gulleys through the reefs, determining that it was a chokepoint used to keep interlopers out. Thus prepared, they are not caught off guard when sea snakes try to attack them from holes in the coral. They fight them off successfuly, and make it through to Nedra proper. * Kanna, Lucien, and co continue on through the recovering Coral Forests of Nedra. While picking up a slowly growing bad feeling, they ambush a Chaosian ambush in Nedra proper, at one of the routes which lead to one of the major shipping lanes to Rebma. The group defeats them all, and moves on. * Kanna, Lucien, and co find that a logrus-made Black Road has been forged in one of the canyons leading to Rebma through Nedra. Using the Pattern and Greyswandir, the group manages to cut across the Black Road. While climbing the opposite canyon face, a 200-strong shapeshifter shadow/Chaosian patrol approaches along the Black Road. Lucien uses Greyswandir to hide them behind a coral formation on the cliff face. * Finally, Kanna, Lucien, and co reach the remains of Derith's mansion and enter it. After some exploration (and avoidance of the remains of looters), they discover a secret stairwell down to a subterraian grotto. They head down the central shaft, which has various artifacts and trinkets stashed by Derith hidden away. * On the way down, Kanna, Lucien, and co encounter 790, a metal talking head which served as Derith's "Advisior". It wakes, and proclaims its undying love for Kanna, to Ruka's bemusement and Lucien's frustration. However, 790 knows the way through the deathtrap maze that hides Derith's secret vaults, and they take 790 with them to guide the way. * Kanna, Lucien, and co work way through maze, encountering dead cloned shadows of Stanley Tweedle, the Primal Loser, used by the Bloc to try and bull their way through the Maze and set off the traps. They also start encountering dead 'Deriths', also used to try and go through the maze. Finally, they encounter a shimmering field blocking their path near the last few traps -- when Kanna tries patternsighting it, it sets off a Logrus trap, launching Logrus Lightning at them all. Lucien tries parrying with Greyswandir, and it explodes AGAIN, finally knocking out Kitiara and Pirotase, and leaving the rest somewhat worse for wear. Kanna has Gabrielle slap on healing spells for those who need it, and then she, Ruka, and Morrigan fight off slavering Stanley Tweedles while Lucien helps and then prevents Kitiara and Pirotase from being stolen away by Logrus Tendril. He goes to confront the Chaosian shapeshifters who sent the tendrils and kills them, but not without taking damage in the process. Eventually, the mass of Stanleys are killed, save but for a trickle, and the group manages to rest and recover for several hours. Those who are conscious chat about how they met their respective SO's for a bit while healing. * Kanna, Lucien, and company spend several hours resting. Eventually, Kitiara and Pirotase recover, and they head onward. The source of the Feral Stanley Tweedles is discovered -- a cloning cabinet from the Cluster, which is deactivated by 790. They negotiate the last few triggered traps, and reach the doors of Derith's vaults. Lucien uses his pattern-key to open it. * Kanna, Lucien, and company begin to explore the contents of Derith's secret vaults. Using the inventory provided by Derith, they track down lots of various interesting items... such as complete printed diaries of the Royal Family up to 40 years ago, maps of Rebma and Nedra and places out in Shadow, and a complete supply of rifles and bullets using Amber Gunpowder. Various other useful items are found, and arrangements are made for Gabrielle to trump Derith's goods up to Ember's vaults for safekeeping. * [Elsewhere-- the 'Jacqui' Crisis.] * Kanna and Lucien and the group discuss plans of how to infiltrate Rebma. The decision is made to use the sewer tunnels, since it's highly unlikely that they'll have guarded ALL of them. They eat dinner, then sleep in shifts in case anybody else tries to come to the vaults, given the signs of passage earlier. Day 64 [May 24, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Lucien, et al. wake the next morning. After breakfast, they sneak back out of Derith's old mansion, cross Nedra, and reach one of the sewage processing areas. They sneak into Rebma via the sewers, and come out in the middle of the city. They ascend one of the towers of the old Merchant's Guild to observe Rebma. They determine that the current population is likely reaching 200,000, and that 40,000 are warriors... and 20,000 Chaosians are also in the city, and also combat- capable. Pirotase and Morrigan determine that the ice dome -could- be breached, if hit in the right spots, and Lucien performs tactical analysies, determining that the city would not be fully ready to defend itself if the ice dome was lowered. Kanna takes notes and sketches during this of what she sees. * Kanna and Lucien's group sneak back out via the sewers and return to the empty vaults beneath Derith's mansion. They then trump back to Ember. * Kanna gets cleaned off, with the able assistance of Captain Ruka. She walks the Fire Pattern, and then goes to write up her report and analysies of the Bloc Rebmaquois forces and Outsider/Chaosian connections. She reports to her mom, and also gives Ruka a copy of the report to give to Kozue when he returns to Shalomar. Kanna then spends some time writing in her diary and reading over the re-catalouged inventory of Derith's loot. * Beowulf trumps Kanna, having returned from Leng. Kanna pulls him through, and then Beowulf trumps Lian and pulls her through. They enter Beowulf's Bag to discuss their current doings in fast-time. * Beowulf takes Kanna and Lian to his transplanted Library of Annadil. Within one of the reading rooms, they discuss their doings since day 57 of the campaign, and discuss what they plan to do next. Beowulf leads them to the Hotel Pennsylvania so that Kanna and Lian can rest after their long days, and so that they can have some girl talk. Beowulf drops off some books about the Knife and the Logrusfoils, and then heads out to talk with Lucien et. al in Ember before heading down to Chaos. * Kanna and Lian talk about various things while Kanna gives Lian a back massage. After some innocent joking about their vacation plans and getting Lian and Thropan back together again, Kanna finally admits her love for Lian and Ruka. Lian, surprisingly, returns that love for Kanna, still loving Thropan as well. With this new understanding between them, they fall asleep together, not taking things further as they still have yet to discuss the matter with their boyfriends. * The next morning, Kanna and Lian wake up, have breakfast, and prepare to head out. Lian booms back to Mechanus to check on the status of her Borg takeover, and to investigate the Red Death near Arden. * Kanna exits the Bag, and finds herself in House Gainax. Beowulf hands over Daffyl's Eye to Motoko. Kanna, Beowulf and Moonshade and Jacqui get assigned rooms by Mutsumi. Kanna talks with Moonshade along the way about going to see the Arden Elves once the Serpent's Horn mission is over, and Moonshade agrees. Discussion turns towards sisters, and Gabrielle pipes up from Kanna's manifestation of her. Despite warnings from Kanna to NOT manifest a projection, Gabrielle manifests anyway, and starts chatting with Mutsumi (and eats some shifter pastries) about current events and the plans to investigate Serpent's Horn. Kanna worries about Gabrielle's appearance through all this. * Kanna's fears turn out to be warranted when the Sign of the Logrus appears, yelling at Gabrielle to get out of Chaos. Gabrielle challenges him to a Steel Cage Grudge Match at Yig after the Logrus insults her choice of lovers. Kanna muzzles Gabrielle by stuffing the manifestation in her top. The Logrus leaves after Beowulf gives it some videotapes. Anno goes and tries to placate the Logrus in the interim. * Kanna goes back to her rooms (this time shared with Naru) and has a bit of a minor breakdown, and can't sleep due to nightmares (mostly of the "Ember Pattern Gets Destroyed And My Parents Both Die" variety). She goes to relax in the House Gainax hot springs. * Kanna enters the hotsprings as Moonshade's getting drunk and depressed about not being able to have Ramon. Motoko leaves in a huff after Moonshade insults her mother, and Jacqui escorts Moonshade out. She then comes back and asks Kanna if she has any advice about a Blood Taylor having captured Dread Pirate Roberts. Kanna's reply is that he can stay captured for all she cares. Jacqui is somewhat nonplussed by Kanna's apparent change in attitude towards the Pirate, but accepts it, and heads out to get some rest. Kanna and Yumi then talk about various concerns and developments, Kanna thinking about her relationship with Ruka and Lian all the while. Eventually, Kanna heads out for the night. * Kanna heads off to sleep, at least good enough to not be disturbed by nightmares anymore. Day 65 [May 25, 1332 AY] * Kanna, Moriya, Motoko, Beowulf, Jacqeline, etc have breakfast down in Chaos. The realization is made that the kidnappers who took Michelle from her estates may very well have kidnapped Hisame Atusko (Moriya's grandmother) as well. Moriya does not take the news well. Miki gives a quick breifing of their intent to try and scout the remains of Daffyl's Tower to determine what Serpent's Horn has done to it. A scouting team of Kanna, Beowulf, Moriya, Miki, Yumi, and Jacqueline is made. Kanna loans Moriya the use of the Knife during the duration of the Serpent's Horn crisis. Miki gives those there several hours to get ready before meeting in his rooms before heading out. * After the first meeting, harsh words are exchanged between Moriya and Thoric. Kanna pulls Moriya aside to discuss details about the Knife with Moriya and to do a little sparring, so as to seperate Thoric and Moriya to get him to blow off steam. The two spar, and while Moriya gets in several blows, Kanna is able to weather them, and gets in one or two as well. The sparring ends with a draw after the two outmaneuver each other. Moriya heads off to meditate, and Kanna goes to rest and prepare before the scouting mission. * Kanna, Beowulf, Moriya, Miki, Yumi, and Jacqueline rendevous in Miki's rooms. Miki is changed into a man-sized smurf with a mohawk by Mitsune so as not to be recognized. The group shuts off their various construct manifestations, and then Miki trumps them to the outskirts of Dylath-Leen. They make their way through the town and up the river, using Logrus (provided by Yumi) to shift shadow. They start seeing signs of major pyrotechnic use, including a downed Pharoah Mobius zeppelin and blasted portions of forest. The reach the town of Ulthar, where all the people and their cats have been killed, and the harpy and centaur force which killed them have been killed in turn. They ride off on land, hide from a chaosian patrol, and then finally reaching the river and bridge that leads to Daffyl's hill -- which is now a massive stone bridge over a canyon that leads to a fortified keep. * The scouting party heads downriver to cross the canyon from the cover of the forest in the shape of flies. Yumi and Miki are able to bull a path through some form of barrier to allow the others to follow. They continue on foot up the forested hillsides, and find that the area around Daffyl's tower has been tranformed into a fully fortified city with a population 20,000 strong, with heavy patrols and self- sufficency, and a bridge crossing a central lake to a fortress which once was Daffyl's tower. They decide to ambush and brain-munch one of the many patrols in the area to get further information on the place's layout, as trying to infiltrate right there and then would be foolhardy. Yumi changes into a fly so that she can subtly eat the mind of one of the patrolling chaosians. Unfortunately, that patrol notices the not-expertly-hidden Jacqueline, and double-backs in forest-creature form to try and ambush her. However, since Moriya and Jacqueline (in bird form) were following the group, the rest get advanced warning, and manage to ambush them. The patrol group is subdued, their brains are eaten to get information and to then make them believe none of this happened, and Yumi is recovered (as she got hit by one of Beowulf's knockout drug paintballs while in fly- form). * The information gathered, the group heads back out of the area stealthily, and trumps back to Gainax. Along the way, Kanna makes maps and sketches from Yumi and Miki's extracted information, and collates them into a packet to be given to the Chaosian generals (Helgram and Nurgal) that will be helping on the eventual assault. Kanna also gives Miki her report on the Bloc Rebmaquois occupation of Rebma, and he expresses his concern that Lucien may not be able to handle the forces arrayed against him. They also talk a bit about the possibility of Kanna meeting Morgan and Hiko while she's down in Chaos, for a family visit. There might be the possiblity of trumping them, but it's debatable. * Miki goes off to talk with their Chaosian allies, and Kanna heads off to find food, write about her day, and sleep; deferring contacting her mother about Gabrielle's indiscretion until she can bum some time with Beowulf and his Bag to carry the conversation in fast-time. * [The Night Of Extreme Weirdness -- Female Moriya! Threesomes! Anthy, Dios, and Baby Nanami!] Day 66 [May 26, 1332 AY] * Jacqui wakes up in bed with Thoric and Mutsumi. Any chance of waking up normally is dashed when Suu tries to figure out which one of them is Mutsumi. Jacqui manages to wake the other two up while Suu waits in a dresser drawer. Mutsumi, Thoric, 'Angie' and Suu go back to where Motoko is sleeping off her rescue of Anthy, Dios, and Baby Nanami. Beowulf and Lily are woken up by all the commotion. * Moonshade enters in a good mood, having had sex with false Ramon. Moriya-chan enters soon after, bringing muffins. Mitsune enters, at wits end. * Kanna wakes up and goes to try and find breakfast. Wondering why there's nobody in the breakfast area, she goes and tries to hunt down the rest of the Amberites in House Gainax. * Kanna finds them all in Motoko's room. She gets introduced to Suu of Alars, and then she, Beowulf, and Lily head to Beowulf's rooms. Beowulf tries to fill her in on various events of the night. Beowulf and Lily head into the bag to relax and freshen up. * Moriya and Mitsune catch up with Kanna, and explain Moriya- chan's little accident. Kanna tries to explain the female condition to Moriya, much to his embarrasment. * Kanna and Beowulf enter the Bag, and trump Corrine to talk with her about the Gaby/Logrus Grudge Match. Corrine is more copacetic about the event than Kanna and Beowulf are, and gets shown the Library of Annadil, including some of the more interesting books (like "Peterson's Guide to the Worlds Beyond the Cave Of Worlds"). They update Corrine on the scouting mission, Motoko's rescue from the World of the Dead, and other current events. The possiblity of freeing the Harad Sisters is brought up by Beowulf, who relates Morrigan's information. The idea is started to contact the Abyss Pirate Dread Pirate Demetrius of Avalon. * Beowulf and Corrine check out Aeris after Kanna departs the Bag. * Moriya-chan and Moonshade spar, with mixed results when Moriya tries to demonstrate the usefulness of Power Words. * The Massive Planning Session is made, led by Lord Loewen, Miki, and Lord Rengar of Nurgal. Loewen, Yumi, Kanna, Beowulf, Moriya, Motoko, Usui, and Thoric will infiltrate the Serpent's Horn's fortress, while Naru, Miki, Mutsumi, Shinobu Major and Lily will assault the canyon keep with Amber forces, and Jacqui, Moonshade, and Mitsune will lie in wait in a trap shadow with Justice and Daffyl's Eye to lure out the Serpent's Horn forces to be pincered by Helgram and Nurgal. Motoko leads the group in a Prayer to the Serpent that this operation will be successful. * The group breaks up to make preparations, including fast- time preps and item conjuration. Anya arrives, and Motoko and Moriya calm her down. * Jacqui and Moonshade talk about their upbringings and how Jacqui learned magic and Moonshade learned the arts of war. * The Commando Group (Loewen, Yumi, Beowulf, Kanna, Moriya, Motoko, Thoric, and Usui) manages to sneak their way back into Daffy's shadow, waiting for the distractions to occur. Once a portion of Serpent's Horn forces is drawn away, they advance on the fortress in insect form. Yumi and Thoric manage to pick holes in the wards protecting the place from anyone with Pattern Imprints, and they continue on as crawling insects. The use of an SEP field prevents them from being stalked by natural insect predators, and they manage to reach the prison area. * The commando group returns to human form, invisible save for Moriya-Chan. They ambush the guards when Moriya lures them out, managing to take them all down before their leader can trump their bosses. Yumi seals off the area with ice walls, and then she, Thoric, and Motoko head into the jail area to start defusing the massive magic and Logrus wards around the four primary prisoners (Saionji, Michelle, Atsuko, and Davros). Kanna goes to observe another group approaching the blocked off hallways, and then gets Beowulf to help her to disable them before they can trump anybody or set off alarms. Loewen's assistance is used for defusing the final wards on Davros, given he has a Spikard as well, geared towards such things. * Usui detects massive trump use; soon after, there is the sounds of Morgenstern engaged in combat. The battle is joined in Daffyl's shadow, and after Davros is freed, Motoko summons the Eye of Daffyl to undo the wards on the cells of the other prisoners (which includes Robert Wapole, Mayor of Amber City). While gathering the prisoners, Wapole murmurs mention of a bomb, which prompts the team to scan the prisoners, finding small primal chaos bombs set in all of them. Yumi, Motoko, and Loewen defuse the primal chaos bombs. They then evacuate using the Eye to gate the entire group back to Gainax as the ice walls are breached. * Yumi and the other former prisoners are sent off to be healed, while the rest of the commando group regroups, and Motoko uses the Eye again to teleport to Jacqui and Moonshade. Jacqui is burning from a patternblade wound to the lung, while a one-armed Moonshade is desperately trying to hold off Kenshin who has both Justice and Merehallow. Kanna clears away the golems blocking the way to Moonshade and Kenshin with a shadow-molding summoning of Beryllina. Motoko power-words Eowyn to keep her from correctly firing a pistol. Thoric charges on Kenshin in a berserker rage, and Moriya and Loewen charge as well (though not berserk). Beowulf dumps a healing spell on Jacqui, and tries to shoot Kenshin, who uses Moonshade as a human sheild. Eowyn gets spell-catapulted onto Evil Davros, tangling the two. * Kanna pulls back, hosing down golems and then using Pattern Defense to snuff out the Pattern Flames in Jacqui. Loewen is driven back by the sudden appearance of Soujiro, Thoric and Moriya get cut up by patternblades, but Moriya manipulates things so that Kenshin is ambushed by the Potato. Jacqui, starting to recover, uses Pattern Tendrils to grab Kenshin before he can kill Moriya with more patternblade thrusts. Kafuin starts working to put out the patternflames. * Motoko summons the Serpent in his Fire aspect. This has the effect of immolating Evil Davros, who was wearing the Breath of the Dragon at the time. Eowyn tries to escape by trump, but Kanna shoots up the area around her with Beryllina, Aeris blocks the trump, and Beowulf shoots out her legs at the knees. * Kenshin gets his back broken by Thoric, run through by patternblades held by Jacqui's Pattern Tendrils, and then stomped by Soujiro when he tries to impale Thoric (who gets teleported by Moriya) after trying to flee Loewen. * Motoko flies up in phoenix form with Daffyl's eye while Gabrielle and Morgenstern restrain Daffyl. The Serpent follows, and watches as Motoko restores Daffyl's eye to him. Daffyl undergoes redemption and is restored to sanity. His tears heal the ravaged landscape and open wounds of the armies, and he speaks to the Chaosians on the battlefield before speaking to all, renouncing his curse and his departure to help the Phoenix in guarding the walls of the universe. * The group takes stock of what's occured. Kanna is given Merehallow to take to Juri. Soujiro is tasked by Loewen to wander in the service of the Serpent until his sins are absolved. Eowyn is gated to Ember to cool off. The Serpent gives Gabrielle a kiss on the forehead, and Morgenstern a pat on the shoulder, and then departs. Motoko reclaims Breath of the Dragon for Davros. Mitsune recovers from mist form, albeit chibi. The group heads back to Gainax courtesy of Aeris, and rest and recovery begins, as well as after- action reports of the other two branches of the teams report in. Day 67 [May 27, 1332 AY] * Kanna wakes, chats with Naru for a bit, and then they head off to breakfast. They meet Shinobu Major there, and she learns of Lian's removal of the Red Death from Arden. She also learns of the stomping of the Southern Fleet near Ashante. Their breakfast gets interrupted by flying 790 heads, who bring requests for help from Lucien in tracking down Annadil's battleship. Kanna manages to get the three 790's to depart after they leave their messages. Kanna then heads off to find Beowulf. * Kanna rendevouses with Beowulf. They start talking about current events, and get interrupted by another flying 790. They manage to get it to leave. Kanna and Beowulf talk about the underwater battleship, and all the things that still need doing, and the severe need for a vacation. She also fills him in on Lian's adventure near Arden, and the stomping of the Southern Fleet. They then manage to ward off MORE 790 heads. They encounter Miki, who tells them where Motoko and Moriya are. * Kanna and Beowulf trump to the Keep. They talk with Motoko and davros about the grudge match, inform her about Kanna's investigation of Rebma and the possible Darios/Outsider/Bloc ties, and get information on who to contact in the way of Abyss monks or Pirates. Kanna also learns to speak with Radical Edward about the Giant Space Whale that attacked the Bebop, in case it is the same thing as Annadil's battleship. She gives them a sketch of Davros meditating before she departs. Beowulf heads back to Lily in Gainax. * Kanna hunts down Moriya and Mitsune in the Keep's gym. She gives the two of them a sketch of Moriya-chan and Chibi- Mitsune, and then learns that the Knife is currently in Anno's hands for safekeeping. She relates to them her concerns about Darios/Outsider/Bloc alliance. She also learns some of Moriya's plans regarding confronting the false Loewen and Helgramways. They discuss the upcoming Gabrielle/Logrus steel cage match, and Kanna warns Moriya about the flying 790 heads. * Kanna trumps home, and tries to convince Gaby not to do the grudge match. She doesn't do all that well, but she can't say that she didn't try, either. * Kanna eats lunch. * Kanna trumps Nanami to get in contact with Radical Edward. She notices that Nanami is massively depressed, but doesn't press her on it. * Kanna trumps Johann to get more information on the incarceration of the False Eowyn. * Kanna writes in her diary, waiting for Radical Edward to call. They talk about the Giant Space Whale that the Bebop encountered, and make arrangements for her to call back once Kanna's gotten a computer set up to transfer the data Edward managed to accumulate. * Kanna trumps to the Beach and her mom's Beach house. She powers up her mom's Mac equipment, and is ready by the time Edward calls back. She pulls her through, and Edward downloads the data to the computers from her LogrusBook. Kanna also makes an offer to provide Ember metals to help the Bebop crew build a new ship. The download finishes, and Edward Logrusmails herself home. * Kanna studies the Bebop data for a while as she prints it it out. From her studies, she determines that the Giant Space Whale is either the Leviathan (with its capabilities not fully explored) or a bastardized copy. She makes information packets for Moriya, Beowulf, Lucien, and Lian, before packing up and trumping her mother to talk with her in Ember. * Kanna fills Corrine in on the events in Chaos relating to Serpent's Horn. Kanna then learns the story of the False Eowyn, who is actually a blood-creature who has existed for over 600 years, made from the original Eowyn's blood and raised in a False Amber so that she had childhood memories and believes that Drake is the sole source of Evil(tm) in the universe. Aside from that, Eowyn has a full Air Pattern imprint, and had been working for the Serpent's Horn for a very long time, and was also the false Eowyn of the Annadil Crisis, having been supplied with the Amber gunpowder formula. Corrine hopes to rehabilitate Eowyn, even though Eowyn believes that Corrine has been brainwashed by Drake. Corrine advises Kanna to head for Cathuria with Merehallow as soon as possible, so as to avoid the troubles Morgan got into. They discuss the upcoming Gabrielle/Logrus Steel Cage match, and Kanna's concerns. She also asks Corrine if it's all right to go to the Isles of Avalon to muster an army and navy for Amber's defense, given the upcoming Day of the Dead. She fills in Corrine on the events relating to the southern fleet, and then they discuss the issues surrounding Amber Gunpowder and its reproduceability. The issue of who should redraw the Water Pattern is also discussed, and despite Corrine's personal feelings, she is backing Lucien's decision to have Fuyutsuki redraw it. Thoughts about vacations are mentioned, and then Kanna gives Corrine the copy of Lucien's data packet on the Giant Space Whale to study. * Kanna trumps to Yig, trumps Anthy in Gainax, and goes to talk with her. They talk about Kanna's need to deliver Merehallow to Aunt Juri, and the state of the World of the Dead. She supports Kanna's plans to try and contact Dread Pirate Demetrius in an attempt to retrieve the White Knight and the Harad Sister's souls from the Abyss. They then discuss the nature of dreams for a while, and how the World of the Dead, and Hel, have no dreams. Once again, the Steel Cage Grudge match gets discussed. Kanna asks Anthy what her father likes in the way of gifts. * Kanna tries to get in touch with Anno and Miki, but both are busy. She heads to the Steel Cage Grudge Match at Yig. * The Gabrielle / Logrus Steel Cage Grudge Match at Yig takes place. The Red Knight is refereeing, as well as Kuonji Inji, which surprises many people. Beowulf and Kanna sit in the 'referee' section, while Motoko and Moriya cheer for the Logrus and Moonshade cheers for Gabrielle. The match gets underway, and it turns vicious after taunts occur and incite the Logrus to more violence. Gabrielle tries a low- blow desperation move by changing into Jacqui, which startles the Logrus enough for her to get in a blow with the Jewel of Judgement. The match is declared a Draw due to being knocked out of the cage and excessive bad taste. * Kanna heads back to Ember with Corrine, and they discuss the possible fallout of the match, especially since Jacqui and the Logrus had used to be an item. They head to the royal jacuzzi to have a soak and discuss the matter further. After some soaking and more discussion of vacations and personal shadows, Kanna reveals to her mom that she's in love with both Ruka and Lian. Corrine takes it ... well, better than she probably could have, given all the circumstances. Kanna's rationality about the subject helps alleviate Corrine's concerns about her daughter and Lian getting hurt, and she gives her blessing for the matter and a hopeful non-harmful resolution. They mother/daughter bond, relaxing in the tub for a while longer. * Kanna heads to bed, and Corrine heads to bed to wait for Carl to get back. Day 68 [May 28, 1332 AY] * Kanna wakes up, eats breakfast, and writes in her diary. * Kanna trumps to Shalomar, to go and see Ruka and see how he's doing. However, the base is on full alert and engaged in an orgy of building in order to compensate for the loss of the southern fleet, as well as prepare for a possible attack from the Galicians. Attempts to hold an extended conversation are thwarted, as Ruka is the man on the spot, thanks to being the base commander. Kanna does make the offer to get more ships for him, which he accepts. She also brings up the idea of a vacation in fast-time, which Ruka reluctantly turns down. The two part ways after a quick kiss, with promises to talk later that night. * Kanna gets trumped by Wasyuu to help pacify Paris-Lian and Paris-Thropan in Lian and Thropan's bodies (who got that way after Wasyuu's cross-dimensional experiment went fubar). She recruits Beowulf and the rest of the Edge Guard to help subdue them inside Wasyuu's lab. After some scouting by Tirga, a plan is made to lure the two from the armory into an ambush in the lab proper. They get beat up a bit, but Paris-Lian and Paris-Thropan get beat up more, and taken down. Wasyuu scans the two to get their dimensional frequencies, and then Kanna and Sheila run on another treadmill to try and undo the process. Thropan is returned to his proper body, but Paris-Lian is still stuck in Lian's. The decision is made to go and try to find Lian in the other universe and try the mind-transfer there. * Kanna, Beowulf, Sheila, and Paris-Lian travel to the Paris universe, where they end up in the middle of a human/chaosian battlefield. They KO some chaosians and steal their horses, breaking through the front lines. They make a break for a forest off to the side to regroup and plan what to do next. A small group of cavalry tries to pursue, but Kanna wards them off with Beryllina as they reach cover. They test their abilities and find that most of their Pattern skills do not work; manifestation access is cut off, and an attempt to trump Lian is fried. Tactical analysis leads the group to the conclusion that there's very little they could do to help the human army without being suicidal. Reluctantly, they go and ride off with Wasyuu's shadow-shifting device to find Lian. * After about three hours, Kanna, Beowulf, Sheila, and Paris-Lian encounter Lian, Queen Wasyuu, and Briar of Paris riding on one of Lian's intelligent tanks. They get together and Queen Wasyuu finally believes Lian's story about being from another universe. Kanna, Beowulf, and Queen Wasyuu chat while Briar swaps the two Lian's brains. Finally, the swap completes, and Kanna hugs Lian affectionately after they're sure the minds are in the right bodies. They cordially part ways, and use the remote control provided by Wasyuu to return to the TAMD/UNS universe. * Kanna, Beowulf, Sheila, and Lian return to Wasyuu's labs. Lian is cool towards Wasyuu, and Kanna takes the Edge Guard, Beowulf, and Lian to Jade so that they can relax and destress in fast-time. * Kanna, Beowulf, Lian, and the Edge Guard go to the Dragon's Jaw Inn in Seer's Hamlet to get food and to fill each other in on their recent adventures. Beowulf fills in Kanna and Lian about the attempts of Vice and Mature to kill Amberites. The idea is planted to vacation in Jade for a while, to recouperate from the latest ordeals. Kanna then fills in Lian about the war against the Serpent's Horn, and Gabrielle's grudge-match versus the Logrus. She also gives them the report on False Eowyn, and Corrine's theories on how she was created. Beowulf fills them both in on the rescue of Anthy, King Dios, and Baby Nanami from the Hel-verse. Beowulf also tells them about the Logrus's upset against Gabrielle. They discuss Darios's Giant Space Whale, and the possibilities of it being the same as Annadil's "Leviathan". Further planning is deferred for the time being, as it is decided that a vacation is sorely needed. * Beowulf trumps Lily, and brings her through. Kanna takes Lian, Thropan, Beowulf, and Lily to her home and forge to the northeast. They all go to sleep. * Kanna gets up the next morning to watch the sun rise and to talk with Gabrielle about the match and what they can do about the fallout. They talk about constructs, and the nature of Kanna's relationship with Lian, and Gabrielle brings up the offer to have Lian attune to the Fire Demi-Jewel to allow her to gain a Fire Pattern imprint. Future plans are discussed, then they head inside. * Kanna starts making breakfast and coffee. Lian wakes and comes downstairs, gets coffee, and then she and Lian eat breakfast while Lian tells of her adventures in Paris. Future plans on how to help Ruka are discussed, and also future ideas in general. Kanna brings up the idea of making presents for various people who deserve them. Stock is taken as to where various folks are, and what still needs to be done before the Day of the Dead. Lian heads back upstairs to check on Thropan, while Kanna continues to sketch things. * Beowulf wakes up and heads downstairs, and talks with Kanna while getting breakfast for himself and Lily, and bluntly ignoring Gabrielle. Beowulf takes breakfast back upstairs, and Kanna asks Gabrielle to demanifest during the duration of the vacation to help preserve the peace. Beowulf feeds Lily breakfast in bed, and then the two head back down to see Kanna. Kanna then takes them on a tour of her homestead and forge on Jade, while giving them a quick rundown on some of the interesting features of Jade and Earth-Realm. They then head out back to pick apples. * Beowulf, Kanna, and Lily come back inside with bushels of picked apples. Lian and Thropan are back up by that time, and they chat before deciding to scan the Ashante Coast monitoring board to determine what happened to the southern fleet. They figure out that the Galician fleet was remarkably well-timed in taking advantage of Saionji's dissapearance and that if they continue to head towards Amber, they will get there in about an Amber week. They would not be undefeatable, though, if Amber tried to field a similarly equipped force led by a commander of sufficent skill. * Kanna temporarily resynchs Jade with Amber so that she, Beowulf, and Lian can talk with Ruka about the south fleet's destruction and what can be done to counteract it. Beowulf provides tactical information and analysies, and the three of them offer to make a fleet for Ruka and Shalomar. Lian gets construction specifications, and they also get standard Amber naval procedures with which to train a new navy. They finish the trump conversation, but not before Kanna and Ruka can exchange kisses. Kanna then shifts Jade back to fast- time. * Over the next four months, Lian has Mechanus's factories work on building ship hulls and weaponry while Kanna and Beowulf recruit crews from the coastal cities of Jade. Final outfitting and equipping of the ships take place on Jade so that the crews can get used to the ships's weaponry (both cannon and more traditional equipment, like catapults and ballistae). They then engage in various fleet training exercises and wargames, led by Beowulf, as well as smacking down various groups of Jade's pirates for practice. The Jade portion of the endeavour is paid for by some of Kanna's squirrled away funds from her adventuring years, and the treasure recovered from various ancient sites discovered and excavated by Kanna, Lian, Beowulf, and Lily. * During the working vacation, Kanna continues to train and improve her skills, makes many paintings of things she's seen over the past months, teaches Beryllina some new forms, does research in Beowulf's Library, and trains with Gabrielle in fast-time, learning the "Shadow Short Cut" technique. She also oversees the creation of Amber Gunpowder (the formula provided by Corrine), and tests it out in nearby fast-time shadows that have the same physical laws as Amber. * Kanna's reasearch determines that most of the information she REALLY wishes she could get on Annadil's plans were either in Annadil's head or destroyed/claimed by the Elemental Priestesses when they visited his stronghold. However, she does learn that while Annadil didn't know beyond what Amber knew about the patternblades, he did try to get the others and failed. She also learns that Annadil at least had the -skills- to make Eowyn, though not wether he had. While he was not interested in the Phoenix, his library holds enough information on the Phoenix Egg to learn that it'll hatch only when it's good and ready. Kanna also trawls through various books of Prophesy, and is suitably disturbed by what she finds in the Red Book of Malin. * Lian, meanwhile, continues to work on the ships, relax and snuggle with Thropan, makes underwater peeboes and wind generators with Beowulf, and does some training and hanging out with Kanna. The day before they head back, she makes flying rocks to serve as Air Support. * Beowulf mostly focusses on the crew training and enhancement of ship weapons, exploring Jade and occasionally Earth-Realm with Lily, and finally getting a decent -vacation- to allow him to recover from the past few month's adventures. * Finally, the working vacation ends. Kanna locks up the house after it's been winterized, and the four trump to Trinc to watch the fleet depart. * Kanna synchs Jade back up with Amber, and then Gabrielle trump-gates the ships to the Shalomar naval base. Kanna then trumps Ruka and gets pulled through with the rest of the group. Kanna, Beowulf, and Lian give Ruka various useful information on the fleet that's just been provided. Beowulf also gives him a copy of the Ashante monitor board, and Lian gives Ruka the control board for her flying rocks. Beowulf and Lily then head off to confront Mature, after an exchange of fond goodbyes. Lian gives Ruka a hoarde of underwater peebos, and helps get the Wind Generators stored before heading out herself to deal with her Borg problem. Kanna then finally heads out, but not before promising to meet with Ruka that night. * [The Beowulf/Jacqui/etc Vice and Mature adventure.] * Kanna goes to see "Aunt" Yui, Juri's aide and co-runner of Juri's fortress shadow. She fills in Yui on current events and her intentions to take Merehallow to Juri, and gets additional information (on past history and mannerisims) so that she can verify Juri's identity when they meet. Yui offers any help she can give in the search if needed, and then Kanna returns to Shalomar. * Kanna and Ruka meet up again, talk about the current naval troubles and who may command the recently provided fleet, and have dinner together. They then head up to his quarters to relax and chat some more. Kanna gives Ruka the sword that she forged for him, and then tells him about the upcoming invasion of Hel. They console and reassure each other, first verbally, then physically. * Kanna and Ruka chat about families, the sea, and sailing, before falling asleep. Day 69 [May 29, 1332 AY] * Kanna and Ruka get woken up by the arrival of a giant ten-story war-train. They dress quickly and try to size up the situation before the war-train runs through and demolishes Ruka's office. The Shalomar base tries to fight off the train but is unable to, thanks to the train's mass, magical weapons, and steam/magic powered mecha. Kanna and Ruka run for shelter and are clipped by a blast from it's main cannon. They manage to make cover and discuss options, wether to board the train or to flee. Kanna recognizes the emblem on the train as belonging to the Black Unicorn forces. * Kozue trumps Ruka and gets brought in and quickly briefed on the situation. She preps flight spells for them to board the train, and then Kanna has the Jade fleet shell the train from afar to serve as a distraction. The Black Unicorn War-Train makes another pass, and they board through one of the mecha launch ports. They fight their way through a horde of internal lasers (thanks to some shielding provided by Kozue), but when they try to get into another part of the train, they find that the route leads to an alternate Arden, instead. Pattern sight by Kozue reveals that the train is actually a giant mobile construct with its own Shadow inside it. * Kanna, Ruka, and Kozue try to escape the train but find all the routes blocked/rerouted. The commander/owner/builder of the War-Train, Horatio reveals his intentions to have Merehallow to help his construct move better through Shadow. He promises that that's all he wants, and will release the three unharmed if the sword is handed over. Kanna decides that they need to stall and get closer to the control center to find out what's going on, so Kozue starts macking on Horatio to get them closer. Ruka gets ejected from the Train, and Kanna and Kozue take an elevator to the control center. * Kanna and Kozue meet Horatio, Dalt, and Coral of Black Unicorn Amber. Kanna makes the internal analysis that there's not much they can do save give up the sword, but hopefully Kozue can stall him long enough with flirting and other stuff to let Kanna out in the outside world have time to plan to deal with the train and to get back Merehallow. Kanna hands over the sword, and then butters up Horatio enough to get him to reveal that he's searching for his 'lady love' and will go to be with her, marry her, and then conquer the universe together (despite Dalt and Coral's feelings on the matter). * Kanna then gets dismissed. She exits via the elevator, which then travels across Shadow, shifting to slow-time as it's launched. Gabrielle intercepts it and brings it to a stop so that Kanna can get out. Kanna is recovered by Gabrielle and Ember Eowyn, and updated on the situation: that she's been gone for most of the day, that while Shalomar Base is pretty much totaled, the Jade fleet and other ships are intact (as are most of the people), Ruka is believed to be somewhere off on the Chaos side of Yig (but on his way to being recovered), and that the Train is currently making its way towards Chaos. * Kanna trumps Lian, and gets herself, Gabrielle, and Eowyn pulled to Mechanus to discuss what's happened. * Lian shifts Mechanus to fast-time, and Kanna sums up the situation. Lian begins Mechanus preparations, and then she and Kanna head to an artifical hot spring in her complex to try and destress. They later spend the night together, sleeping and clothed. * The next morning, Kanna and Lian wake up and have breakfast, and then make some quick preparations before calling other people who can possibly help. Lian shifts Mechanus to normal time. * Lian calls Naru, Keiko, Vash, and Touga, and gets their aid. * Kanna calls Sumire, but she and her father are still busy infiltrating Kanawa Corp. Kanna calls Nagisa, and gets his aid. Kanna calls Motoko to warn her about the train heading to Chaos, and that it could be possible that Horatio could be coming after Motoko, since she was the last who tangled with him. Kanna calls Moriya to warn him about the BU train as well, so that the Keep can be protected. He isn't happy about Kanna having handed over Merehallow, but doesn't say it. * Lian shifts Mechanus back up to Fast time so the assembled group can plan. The general plan turns out to be to try and attack Horatio through Trump with clone-grown "Serpent's Horn" cultists who have ostensibly kidnapped his lady love. Wether or not they succeed, he should hopefully be interested enough to pursue the lead, which would lead back to Mechanus, where Gabrielle and Vector can adjust its reality enough to keep the train from leaving so it can be assaulted. Keiko and Nagisa help on building a competing train, and then Nagisa starts to work on scrying for the Train in Shadow. * During the latest normal-time stint, Naru and Vash walk to the picture of the woman who is Horatio's Lady Love. It is Motoko. * More preparations are made in Mechanus. Kanna destresses from time to time by beating the snot out of various mechanical nasties that Lian can produce. Day 70 [May 30, 1332 AY] * Shadow Storms due to rapid time adjustments in Mechanus make it impossible to travel or trump out of Mechanus for most of the day. * Kanna calls Motoko and brings her and Davros across to Mechanus to explain the current situation. * Kanna learns from Motoko that she, Miki, Davros, Anthy, Yumi, and Nanami were able to contact Juri during a massive shadow-mapping effort. * Kanna tells Motoko about Horatio's desire to have Motoko as his 'True Love'. Motoko is not particularly pleased about this prospect, or the fact that she'll have to serve as bait while being held by faux-cultists to draw Horatio and the War Train out, but she agrees to go along with the attempt. The suggestion to use the Metal Jewel and an existing Trump of Merehallow is also provided. * Kanna and Motoko learn that Ruka's been rescued, but that Kozue hasn't, which leads to the inevitable conclusion that she should now be considered a prisoner of the BU forces. * Kanna, Motoko, and Naru go and soak in one of Mechanus's hot springs. They get caught up a bit on each other's adventures, and then Kanna tells Motoko and Naru about the Blood Eowyn and their hypothesies on her creation. Naru brings up the possibility that there could be two other Harad sisters out there under the same circumstances as Eowyn, and Motoko offers to pray that Eowyn will see the light of Pindin that reveals truth. * Kanna ducks out for the night. Motoko searches for her mother, who's found one of Lian's failed matter replication experiments, the Brideomatic 3000. Much wackiness ensues, which leaves Motoko in a weird warrior hussy outfit, Keiko in a gorilla suit, and Davros in a wedding gown. Lian catches up with them to explain the situation and to offer to show Davros the Rocky Horror Picture Show later. * Kanna broods about her command decisions atop one of Mechanus's buildings, and Lian joins her up there to draw her out of her funk. They head back inside, and decide to call their boyfriends to finally attempt to have their talk about their relationships. Lian is able to bring Thropan over, but Ruka is still busy with getting Shalomar back in working order. He does agree to have dinner with Kanna after the train is dealt with, though. Once the trump conversation is over, Lian finally breaks the news to Thropan, who isn't too thrilled with the idea of Lian seeing another person while also seeing him. However, he isn't turning away from Lian, either. Lian and Thropan then spend time watching a nice movie while Kanna ducks out to rest and write in her diary. * The group on Mechanus makes final plans and shifts back to normal-time and has their fake vatgrown Chaosians trump BU-Horatio to arrange for a trade of Kozue for Motoko (with the presumed backstory that they're of house Darios, who has had serious grudges against Motoko and Kozue's families in the past). Horatio calls back after consulting with the rest of the family, and arrangements are made for the trade. Day 71 [May 31, 1332 AY] * Eight hours later, the Black Unicorn construct-train arrives at Mechanus. Ember-Eowyn and Davros "escort" Motoko outside while the rest lie in wait. BU-Dierdre and BU-Flora escort Kozue out of the train. Confirmation of identities are made, and then Davros stalls for time after being told to exchange manacles on Motoko. The stalling gets suspicious, and Kanna has Vector boomtube the six to the ambush point while Lian and Vash direct the Mechanus wartrain against the BU-Wartrain. BU-fightercraft decloak and begin firing at Mechanus's sun while automated defenses try to counter against them. * BU-Julian tries to pull everybody who was boomtubed back to to the train. Gabrielle, Vector, and Motoko try to counter it -- BU-Dierdre and BU-Flora get hauled back, and the four good guys are left behind -- and then Kozue and Motoko get teleported away by Kuonji, who had also sneaked in with her own ship. Kozue's manacles are left behind -- and as they were construct manifestations of BU-Julian, are used to nuke the ambush area. Gabrielle and Davros are able to sheild the group for one blast, but it knocks most of the ambushers out, injuring them. Kanna and Davros, still upright, evacuate the group courtesty of Davros's Logrus skills, to a secondary staging point. * Davros heals Nagisa with spikard power, and then he and Nagisa work on healing the rest of the group with Breath of the Dragon and the Cup of Life. * Lian and Vash continue to pilot their mecha train against the BU-Train, and she has the interior of Mechanus firestormed save for Alpha Complex and other key areas, wiping out any chuds and the attacking fighters, and nearly hitting Kuonji's ship in the process. * Gabrielle evacs the land group by trump further out into Shadow, in case of Mechanus's destruction. * Gabrielle relays trump communications between Motoko, Kozue, Kanna, Davros, and Lian about Kuonji's plans to try and stop the BU-Train with gratuitous nukage. They decide on final plans as the BU-Train makes a suicide teleport run on the Metal Rune of Mechanus. Gabrielle and Vector shield Alpha Complex and the Broken Metal Pattern, while Motoko, Davros, and Kuonji use the Statue of Pindin and many torpedoes to form a massive "Logrus Nuke". The BU-War Train explodes, taking out most of the mass of Mechanus, but also utterly destroying the Black Unicorn War Train Construct AND its shadows within it, tossing its Flawed Patterns out into Shadow. * The mechanus group regroups on the now-orbiting Alpha Complex. Kanna and Thropan work to console a bummed-out Lian. Motoko, Kozue, Kuonji, and Davros board the station, and Kanna gives her formal thanks to Kuonji for her help in the rescue. Merehallow, which had also been recovered, is handed over to Kanna. Kuonji departs, and plans are made for Kanna, Lian, Thropan, Touga, and Naru to head for Cathuria. Motoko also informs the group that she was given the third key to Hoard of the Dragon -- given Kuonji's INSISTANCE that Beowulf under NO CIRCUMSTANCE should get the Spikard, she decides that Lian has the best right to it instead. * The Mechanus group splits up to head back to Amber or Chaos or Cathuria or whatnot. Kanna does some quick touching of base back home, while Lian begins plans for Mechanus's reconstruction with Thropan in a Shadow-Pocket. * Kanna, Lian, Touga, Naru, and Thropan trump to Yig, along with horses provided from Ember. Kanna and Lian trump Miki to pick up the Phoenix Egg from him, and to get information on the legal status of Shizumaru and the chances of getting him out early. Basically, it's not very likely. They finish the conversation, and Kanna leads the group out into Shadow towards the place where the Phoenix Egg will hatch, and Cathuria, using smooth Hellriding. * [Increasing Spider Attacks] * [Change route to not have spiders.] * [Different route, get nearly swamped by Tidal Wave across Shadow.] * [Fall back, shadow-ride to meet Millerna, a Silver Ice Dragon, and negotiate transport.] * [KTC Ambush] * [Rescue by Phoenix Fleet and Aunt Juri] * [Talks and stories, but suspicions.] * [Gaby reports about Jacqui/Moonshade] * [After going below, discussion and then scry Juri -- Juri with Tremere?!] * [Ambush her, she trumps out with Kanna, and they end up on ship with Jacqui, et al.] * [Big Massive Funky Brawl!] * [All's well that ends well, once Jacqui/Yog Seperated.] * [Vice and Mature taken to the Keep. Jacqui, Moriya, and Kanna interrogate them.] * [Kanna and Jacqui talk about Kanna having known about Jacqui/Taylor] * [Talk with Touga on what to do next.] * [Write in Diary, Talk with Gaby, sleep.] Day 72 [June 1, 1332 AY] * [Kanna wakes up.] * [Kanna breakfast] * [Kanna Patternwalk] * [Kanna rendevous with Touga and get harness.] * [Kanna and Touga head to Keep.] * [Kanna gets Naru and Millerna.] * [Quick chat with Moriya.] * [Kanna does informative shadow-seeking.] * [Kanna returns to the Keep.] * [Depature] * [Hookup with Lian and Thropan along the way] * [Kanna does need-check again.] * [Pharoah Mobius Takedown] Day 73 [June 2, 1332 AY] * [Shadow travel normally.] Day 74 [June 3, 1332 AY] * [Shadows start to turn more desolate] * [Reach the End of the World.] * [Phoenix Egg Hatches, group follows.] * [mounting attacks of Hunting Horrors] * [Attack of the Windwalker while following Phoenix, and encountering the Phoenix fleet] * [Reach Cathuria! And Juri!] * [Long talk.] * [Kanna and Lian talk.] * [Moriya's death. :P -.-; ] * [Moriya Current... well, you can guess. -.-;] Day 75 [June 4, 1332 AY] * [Breakfast] * [Kanna sparring with Juri and chatting.] * [Lian upgrades Naru's equipment.] * [Kanna, Lian, Touga, Thropan, Millerna head back to Amber. Naru stays behind to help.] * [Drop off Millerna] * [Go to Jade, fast-time, Drop off Thropan, paintings and sculpture] * [Call from Gina with Old Ember artifact] * [Pick up stuff, normal-time, back out.] * [Drop off stuff for Millerna] * [Trump to Ember.] * [Talk with Corrine.] * [Lian's death. -.-; ] * [Lian Current... well, you know. -.-;] * [Jade and Earth-Realm experiences a sympathetic reaction to Lian's death. A giant dragon appears and starts eating the Worthless Mountains, the sun and half the stars go out in Earth-Realm, and various other things occur.] * [Kanna's reaction to Lian's death, Ruka gets brought in.] * [Kanna and Ruka spend the night together.] Day 76 [June 5, 1332 AY] * [Wakeup by unknown trump call.] * [Wakeup with Ruka, gives him t-shirt and ship] * [Breakfast and discussion] * [Call Kozue, gives her approval.] * [Sees Tylor, gives him the ship, updates him.] * [Quick jaunt to get Ruka's sword from Shalomar] * [Trump to Yig, contact Miki.] * [Get pulled through after Gaby Manifestation shuts down.] * [Talk with Miki] * [Go see Anno.] * [Learn about Hoard being destroyed] * [Kanna and Ruka get a room.] * [Kanna has another breakdown, and then hard-crash naps.] * [Beowulf hears from Yumi of Kanna's return and quick trip to Chaos.] * [Beowulf trumps Kanna, and gets pulled through to Gainax. The two update each other on Moriya and Lian's deaths. Kanna gives Beowulf mini-zeppelin and T-Shirt.] * [Kanna, Beowulf, and Ruka go to Anno, and get agreement for him to serve as contact for Demetrius. Get a trump of Gainax and put it in message rock.] * [Kanna, Beowulf, Ruka, and Miki (an assistant in Gainax) head to the Abyss. Encounter the body of Lian, but are suspicious enough to go somewhere secluded to try and figure out what's up.] * [Beowulf trumps Morrigan, and brings her in to consult. He then trumps Nanami.] * [Kanna does some quick shadow-walking to try to figure more about 'Lian'.] * [Abyss-Lian figures the gig is up, and is used to remote-open an Abyss Portal to release the four Abyssal Hendrakes.] * [Kanna kills the sorceress, which prevents their controller from using abyss-magic on site, but an Abyss Cloud continues to spread. Beowulf shoots the okay-swordsman(high psyche?), and Kanna starts trying to hit the archer while Ruka deals with the Armored Swordsman.] * [The group gets split up by the cloud, but Kanna and Ruka double-team the armored Swordsman to take him out and flee. Beowulf shoots Abyss-Lian in the legs to keep her from pursuing, and finally has enough room to trump Nanami again. Nanami, Keiko, and Ramon get pulled through, and Nanami uses Pattern Sorcery to banish the Abyss Cloud and seal the Abyss Portal. The three dead Abyss Chaosians, and Miki, however, are a total loss, especially due to the Pattern magic used. Abyss-Lian and Abyss-Archer escape, however.] * [Gaby determines that the foursome were the Hendrakes that Lian had hired. The sequence of events with Lian's 'possession' is sussed out. Nanami, Keiko, Morrigan, and Ramon take the 3 Hendrakes back to the house, while Kanna, Ruka, and Beowulf take Miki's body back to Gainax.] * [Kanna, Ruka, and Beowulf take Miki's body to the local Chapel of the Serpent. Kanna prays there before they go to notify the family and friends of what happened.] * [Kanna, Ruka, and Beowulf inform Anno of the fallout. He agrees to find somebody from Gainax to drop the message rock into the Abyss, and warns them not to try the vengeance route.] * [Kanna, Ruka, and Beowulf trump back to Yig. Kanna trumps Gaby and gets her manifestation reactivated. Beowulf tries to talk sense into Gaby about the entire Grudge Match with the Logrus; while not very successful when it comes to the Gaby/Logrus hostility (and when seen from a third person POV, one can see that she WAS pretty tolerant, given everything done in the past), she does admit she's sorry about what happened to Jacqui because of it. This doesn't mollify Beowulf much, but it is a start. They then head back to Amber.] * [Beowulf and Kanna go to see Wasyuu while Ruka goes to talk with Kozue. Kanna and Beowulf find that Wasyuu has left the castle to construct a galaxy-sized matter/antimatter bomb to destroy those who killed Lian. They try to contact her, but get a message. They head to inform Tylor of the findings, then go to Lily to let her know about the need for another funeral.] * [Beowulf checks in on how Shinobu Minor and Keitaro are doing. Kanna trumps Ruka, and finds that he can spend another day running around with her, and pulls him through.] * [Kanna, Ruka, and Beowulf head to Jade. Kanna shifts it to fast-time and shuts down Abyss Power within the connected shadows.] * [Kanna, Ruka, and Beowulf trump to Seer's Hamlet, and stop a bar brawl between dwarves and mages, the dwarves upset that their mines were turned to cheese. Further investigation, and news of other occurances in Jade and Earth-Realm, leads to the conclusion that Lian's death had aftershocks in the realm due to her connection to the shadows.] * [Gabrielle tows a new sun into position for Earth-Realm.] * [Kanna, Ruka, and Beowulf trump to the Edge Guard on the Western Continent, to stop the dragon eating the mountains. She edits the shadow so that the dragon eats his fill and flies off to sleep.] * [Thropan gets confirmation of Lian's death. Kanna and Beowulf learn of the existance of Orien.] * [Kanna, Ruka, and Beowulf then trump to Gina, and after their spacecraft is made fully functional, Kanna and Beowulf shape the shadow so that the stars come back and the weather and monsters on earth are calmed. Kanna's subconcious ends up adding Lian's Sigil as a constellation, however.] * [Kanna, Ruka, Beowulf, and co trump to Seer's Hamlet to eat.] * [Kanna takes Beowulf, Ruka, Thropan, Onoli, and Gina to her house to explain just what exactly happened, to the best of her knowledge.] * [Thropan brings Orien to show them. Kanna determines Orien's got blood of Amber AND Avalon. Kanna tells Bey and Ruka about the ability to get Blood Of Amber/ Pattern Imprint if they attune to a DemiJewel first.] * [Dread Pirate Demetrius comes A-calling. The situation is explained to be more dire than first thought, regarding Hel. But he takes the job anyway, courtesy of a decent offering of trade goods and Corn.] * [Various cleanup and explinations on Jade and its associate realms.] * [Kanna updates Ruka and Beowulf on what she knows of the history of Avalon and what things may possibly impact them, with regards to Demetrius.] * [Kanna also does various and sundry paintings, and sends them to Ember for later distribution.] * [Kanna, Beowulf, and Ruka leave Jade after setting it back to 1-1] * [Kanna sleeps in Ember.] Day 77 [June 6, 1332 AY] * [Kanna talks with her mom in the morning, updating her about the prior night's events.] * [Kanna walks the Fire Pattern.] * [Moriya's Funeral.] * [Learn more of Lian's doings.] * [Chat with Anno.] * [Chat with Sumire.] * [Chat with Jacqui and Thoric, Jacqui/Gaby reconcile] * [Trump to Amber to try and inform Tylor, unable to.] * [Trump to Keep and head off into Shadow for Wasyuu.] * [Nausicaa Current] * [Lucien Current] Day 78 [June 7, 1332 AY] * [Head through Shadow, encounter 'White Rose' shadow- crossing sand-skimmers. They get taken out.] * [Talk with Demetrius about Lian sitch and WK] * [Make contact with Drake about Demetrius] Day 79 [June 8, 1332 AY] * [Arrive in Wasyuu's shadow, but not the lab.] * [Attacked by autodefenses, backed out.] * [Tried to talk, and now attacked by 'White Rose' USAF planes.] * [Finally got to talk with Wasyuu, etc.] * [Wasyuu meets Orien, talk Wasyuu down] * [Trump back to Ember to discuss next moves.] * [Get Borg from Lian rerouted.] * [Console Aeris] * [Bey updates Tylor, then gets Lily and Mitsune] * [Kanna gears up, and updates her mom] * [Bey trumps Kanna, gets pulled through with Lily and Mitsune.] * [Group gets Touga and Wasyuu and the ship.] * [Group Pattern-teleports to Trantor] * [Group starts hellriding through space.] * [Giant Stuffed Frog attacks Ember, but Gaby has Haruka, Marshal of Ember, stop it with the Pattern Eva.] Day 80 [June 9, 1332 AY] * [Continue shifting through shadow] * [Encounter a fleet (30 ships) within a nebula] * [Touga leads the fleet through Star Destroyers which blast them -- the small ships are 'White Rose'] * [Reach the ideal shadow to infiltrate from] * [Start using tech-shadowshifting] * [Start encountering Dead shadows -- Touga pulls them out.] * [Normal-speed Shadowshifting to find an ideal non-dead shadow route to infiltrate from] Day 81 [June 10, 1332 AY] * [Reach final destination (see desc), which is the construct itself. Scan the system, etc.] * [Start devising a way to get onboard one of the stations to infiltrate its commnets.] * [Station infiltration] * [Get lotsa data, sneak out.] Day 82 [June 11, 1332 AY] * [Sneak back out through the devestated shadows.] * [Planning!] Day 83 [June 12, 1332 AY] * [Return to Wasyuu-land] * [Trump call from Demetrius -- White Knight retrieved!] * [Kanna calls Harbormaster] * [Kanna calls mom, updates on WK retreival, concerns about Hummingbird and Squid.] * [Beowulf calls Drake, learns about Ynell takedown and Bloc breaking, and about attempt on Yig] * [Bey updates Kanna] * [Get Sumire, Shinobu M, Keitaro] * [Get Jacqui and Thoric. Jacqui gets zapped through trump.] * Jacqui gets fast-healed * more planning * Finalized plans * [Demetrius Current] * Fast Time prep Day 84 [June 13, 1332 AY] * Fast-time prep Day 85 [June 14, 1332 AY] * First Night of Full Moon * Fleets head out * Remaining Borg cube left behind to make more Borg Day 86 [June 15, 1332 AY] * Second Night of Full Moon Day 87 [June 16, 1332 AY] * Third Night of Full Moon * Kanna's branch: Moving the sun, Hear from Gaby wormhole is opened Hear from Gaby fleet vanished mid-transit Figure out what to do next-attack or search? Press on Encounter the mini-cthughites, and flee/attack, and then move on Start having enemy construct try to force our Red Giant to gain extra mass, and enemy fleet appears which hopes to fire nova bombs in. Have Aeris/Keitaro try to dump Wasyuu's antimatter bomb on the Construct Sun. Aeris/Keitaro manage to dump the bomb, but lose contact with it. Pressure eases, allowing the Red Giant to move faster. People try to trump on, 4 fail but 5 make it -- the Harad sisters Mad Bridge Mosh! Fight with John Valois, the Black King! Thoric peirces his head while Kanna holds him down! Bring in 2 more Borg Cubes, and press on. Force our way to the construct's shadow. Fight the fleets that try to stop us. The enemy construct tries to flee with its star. Kanna's fleet follows, and manages to sandwich the enemy construct between the yellow sun and their Red Giant. Weather the nova shockwave. Seal out Cthugha with Gaby/Gaby and the rest with the Knife. Learn Gaby was tapped by Kuonji, and Hel-Forces then tapped that tap to learn of Kanna's plans. Fast-time healing and recoup in WasyuuLand. * Kanna's group regroups and heads to Mo-Land, which is now more green due to the Water Pattern being redrawn. * Get group onto the Radiant, go into space. * Cut open space to the void, try to get folks out. * [More Summary Later -- read the damn logs...] * [MorgyLand Degauss] * [various discussions and conversations] * [Visting Tir-na-nog and fighting Undead Lian] * [Downtime in The Bag] * [Jacqui Current] * [Motoko Current] * [Kaede Current] * [Demetrius Current] Day 88 [June 17, 1332 AY] * [Wakeup next morning.] * [Breakfast with Corrine + Carl in the Bag] * [Chat with Jacqui] * [Chat with Touga] * [Chat with Anthy] * [Funky Water Pattern Walk] * [Lunch with Lucien] * [Talk with Drake] * [Talk with Gabrielle] * [Talk with Bey 'bout her suspicion on his parentage.] * [Checking with Wasyuu] * [Kanna running around] * [Dinner and Sex with Ruka] Day 89 [June 18, 1332 AY] * [Various fast-time preps by everyone] Day 90 [June 19, 1332 AY] Day 91 [June 20, 1332 AY] Day 92 [June 21, 1332 AY] * Kanna gets everybody back to the Keep to wait. Day 93 [June 22, 1332 AY] * High Summer, the day of the Summer Solstice. The anticipated "Day of the Dead", marking the arrival of Hel's invasion force. * [Kanna -- Shamber smackdown] * [Jacqui/Beowulf -- Patterndrawing and Patternerasing] * [Kaede/Motoko -- The High Summer Rites] * [Kuonji Current]