Bear Slapping Duel
(interlude from previous session):
Caine arranges for Silas to get a vision of what Natasha did on the pattern. He sees it from her perspective and then tells Caine what he saw. Caine is concerned and starts making plans to control access to the materials required by the ritual.
Natasha wakes up groggy with a headache. She has no memory of the past few days. Feeling the need to contact her "crew", she trumps Gearhardt, who is on a train. He tells her he doesn't need any help right now.
She then trumps SIlas who is in a featureless black room, and offers to help. He says sure, come through, has a few errands to run and she might be helpful.
Elodie gets a trump from Flora and they discuss various things. She tells her of the ritual at the pattern. Flora is worried that Fiona will figure out how the ritual works, and will use it in some less than desirable manner. She thinks it may be necessary to take steps versus some of the family. Flora mentions that Lewella is her partner, and also implies that Elodie got her magical ability from Flora, she is much more competent than she lets on and the "airhead" act is just that, an act. This is all a surprise to Elodie. She then resumes the act and tries to arrange for a "cute boy" to hook up with Elodie.
Meanwhile, on the train…. Gearheardt is headed to Winter.
Silas meets with Bill Roth who is handling his legal case with the Faerie. He has arranged a plea deal which will involve a payment of various material things. Silas, with Natasha helping, go to assemble the list of things after which they will all head to some neutral ground place in Faerie (between Winter and Summer. They plan to go there via the Unicorn Grove. Silas checks in with Random to get permission sorted out. Random asks Silas to check in on Eric in the Courts of Chaos to see how his efforts to remove the curse are going, once they are done in Faerie.
Elodie calls Gearhardt on trump to discuss what happened. She thinks someone is "blabbing" about the ritual. They also discuss Wrighting. She returns to working on her transporter technologies. She gets a trump from Fiona who tells her among other things that she appreciates how Elodie handled Flora, something which is concerning to Elodie because this implies she knows about their conversation. However, Fiona assures he that she was not spying on her.
Gearhardt arrives at his stop. He is sent to a waiting room. Eventually he is sent to another waiting room….
Silas and Natasha arrive in Faerie. Bill Roth sends them to a waiting room… the same one that Gerhardt is waiting in. Silas notices that the room has several bugs. They are both insect bugs and eavesdropping bugs. There is a line down the middle of the room, one side is the summer side the other winter. We were told not to leave our half of the room.
A small hunchmbacked goblin approaches Gerhardts and asks if he is willing to murder someone to resolve his obligation. He declines. The goblin then directs him to a door marked "Winter". As the door opens, it appears some hands grab him violently, knock him out and and drag him off. Natasha races to aid him but Silas is suspicious and trumps Gerhardts who confirms he is okay. Natasha returns to her seat.
They meet a guy named Drike who is also there resolving some issue.
Bill Roth returns, everything is arranged, but they also want a duel… a slapping duel. Each is allowed to choose a champion, so Silas has Natasha as his champion. The faerie apparently have a bear….
Gerhardt is trying to resolve various debts to winter. Having refused their option of murder, or maiming, they finally ask him to make a shadow path between summer and winter…. he asks for more details…
Elodie goes about her various interests, but finds someone is testing the security of her shadow. While it has not been successful, she is concerned and tries to trace it… she scries with trump but doesn't get a definite answer but picks up something about demons and magic… also protection and guardianship…. it takes a bit of time… she finally catches a red-hued muscular assistant that looks like FIona's assistant. she questions it and it says it is checking out her shadow. It says it was asked to by Fiona. She tries to trump Fiona but does not get through. She senses another thing testing her shadow's defenses, and tries to capture that… and finds another one of the same things.
Natasha steps into the ring with the bear. The rules are you cannot step out, and cannot duck or dodge, and cannot use magic. The bear hits her with an open paw. She hits it back. The bear then hits her really good, delivering a mild concussion. She pauses then uses her hunting knowledge to really hit it and stuns the bear. It does recover though and hits her again though not as hard. She then delivers a final hit that really knocks it back. It stays in the ring, then collapses. A lot of cheering and clapping erupt. The bear gets up and gives her a friendly bear hug.
With that matter resolved, the faerie thing spring a question about the incursion of The Green into faerie lands, so
mething made possible by Silas. They ask him what he knows of this, knowing that as a faerie court there are certain truth protocols. Silas informs them of his role in this. They say that the faerie lord whose lands were lost demands recompense, and wants Silas to go to his lands. Silas cannot as part of the deal is he must stay out of summer lands for ten years. Bill Roth agrees to remain his lawyer, and everyone departs.
Silas goes to Serpent Isle to talk to The Green. It informs him that it mainly wanted to be in faerie (among other places). It does not want to abandon faerie. It says the faerie stopped its advance but its not really trying that hard now. It has no intentions of abandoning that land.
After beefing up the defenses of her shadow, Elodie uses the pattern to find help with a language she doesn't recognize from the Impossible Pyramid. It guides her to Erewhon, at Gerhardt's castle.. She meets a clockwork kangaroo. It tells her she needs permission from the owner…. who is Gerhardt, who shows up shortly. She describes the situation to him….
Both Elodie and Gerhardt are delivered a report on their shadow's security from one of these demons, who then dissolves into nothing. The report is incredibly detailed. They then both get a trump contact from Fiona, who wants to talk about the reports. She indicates concern over what technology they are keeping in their shadows, saying this tech could be weaponized.
The bear that Natasha slapped follows her. She names it Raspberry and takes it to Amber, where she has to claim it is her mount to get it accepted.
Silas talks with Bill Roth again considering various legal options regarding the new Faerie complaint. He is working on various angles. After checking who is in Amber, he trumps to the Courts of Chaos to go talk to Eric.