Most of the group is still at the last battlefield, approaching the gate to return to the Grand Staircase. Lowen searches for something and spies something of interest, well off the path. Silas gives him a tether and Lowen steps off to investigate. He finds a relatively small…. tentacled thing (hereforeafter referred to as The Thing) which is attempting to consume stuff around it and not finding much sustenance in this desolate graveyard. Lowen shifts to his ghost rider forms and attempts to bring it closer to him… and it does. Lowen tries to influence it unsuccessfully at first, but eventually gets it to stop trying to eat him. Lowen tries to drain it of energy but instead makes it about twice as big. He brings it with him back to the path and disguises it as sort of a big backpack. Brigid recalls hearing of these things from long ago, they were created by a long dead Lord of Gossamer and Shadow, and they are not spoken of, something akin to a war crime. They can destroy entire worlds. Jericho touches it with his pattern blade, which proves proof against being consumed by it, and it repulses it without harming it. Eventually everyone returns to the Stair. Lowen intimidates the guards with a glance to not question what he has done. Once on the Stair, Lowen goes off to find Merlin hoping he will help him contain it…
Elodie has collected everything she needed from the library, so she's on her way to scope out Clarissa's abode. Gerhardt discusses a 4D model of data with PhD student Joe, and it seems to indicate that Osric is not being completely honest about something. Gerhardt receives a trump call from Elodie. She asks if he knew that Oberon had a brother. Apparently he lives in the Barrymore Estates in Chaos. It just happens that Gerhardt was about to give Clarissa a call. Unfortunately, she and Elodie don't really get along that well. Nevertheless, they trump to visit Clarissa.
"Cale," she calls. A ghastly fellow slithers to her side. "Show our guest around." Cale purses his lips and intertwines his gaunt, long fingers. He asks their names and takes them to their accommodations. Elodie's has dragons and a castle and quite the view. Cale and Gerhardt leave her and go to find more accommodations. Cale smiles and remarks that he quite likes Elodie and says she will do just fine. Gerhardt gets an ancient chaosian setup, of which he is quite fond.
Brigid is looking for an icon of Drake. Hopefully Calais (Cal) will have one. (Something hapopens.) They're talking to Drake, he says thanks and he'll leave the door open. Apparently Lowen brought "The Thing". Lucien says they don't need to worry about the Labyrinth because that's his and he has it locked down. They head to the pyramid next.
Back at Clarissa's, Eliodie and Gerhardt sit down to a variety of coffees, teas and other appertifs with their host.
Gerhardt gets a trump call from Bleys. Asks if he can come visit. Gearhardt encourages him to come… they then decide to invite Isabelle.
Isabelle, on the stair, gets a trump call. She senses it is Bleys. She takes the call. After pleasantries, he tells her that he is going to a dinner with Gearhardt, and wants her there. She agrees to attend. He asks if she wants to bring anyone, and she says no. She asks him to call her just before the dinner, which he assures her it will be casual. He offhandedly mentions that her grandmother Clarissa will be there, and part of the purpose of the dinner is to introduce Gerhardt…and presumably her… to the dinner.
Lowen arrives at Merlin's apartment, and finds it in shambles. There is blood everywhere, looks like an explosion happened, and there is police tape. Lowen searches for another place to go. He leaves The Thing in his personal shadow (Elderon after slowing down the area of that shadow where it was as much as possible. That should be safe, for now…
Meanwhile, on the road to the Pyramid, the group encounters some Ascendency guards on the stairs. Apparently there are some mini-thieves stealing fruit from the juice bar. Silas makes small talk with Lenny. Isabelle gets the call from Bleys to head to the party. She's bringing Jericho along, to no one's surprise. Lowen (sans "backpack") and Bridig return.
Clarissa offers to introduce Elodie for political or romantic purposes. Elodie responds that she does date some.
The Party
The party has huge pits with roast beef, giant side tables with vegetables and stuff. Also a desert bar where they combine ingrdients and throw them into an oven and they come out fantastic. Its more like a fancy barbecue, not high society.
There is a place off to the side where people are having friendly duels. Jericho goes over there. He sees some chaosians there, and some wagering. Jericho challenges all 20 of them at once, and wants to wager. He sees two guys that might be somewhat competent (one named Essiax. Also one other guy who doesn't fight but comments on the action, thinks he is pretty good, and he is the uncle of Essiax. Someone Jericho met once long ago at a chaos ball. Jericho agrees with this guy's assessment of the situation. His name is Corellen. Jericho trumps Silas to ask if he knows who Corellen is. Silas recalls that he is an acknowledged son of Duke Helgrom, and probably in line to be emperor (a bit down the line).
Jericho trumps Silas and they update info and Silas manages to grab some of the refreshments for everyone waiting. He offers some to Lenny, who says he shouldn't but eventually eats some.
Merovee (sp?) shows up. He looks old. Elodie tries to talk to him alone, but has trouble doing so. She ends up "in line" to see him… He seems unhappy that people are trying to manipulate him. He watches and waits, seems to be looking for someone. With Gearhardt's help she finally gets to talk to him. He asks her what brings her here (after she was introduced as the child of Netherwing and Flora). He mentions that Dworkin decided that Oberon would be more productive than himself. He has focused on restoring the family (Barimon) estate in the Courts of Chaos. He says this will take time. He says the estate will be open to the family, but there has to be an heir. His first step is to restore all the Ways, then petition the Courts to restablish the house. He mentions that one small insignificant house was destroyed in a takeover attempt in the past. He also mentions there was a genocide of all the other Barimons when Dworkin did what he did (draw the Pattern.
Jericho sees Merovee and asks Bleys who he is. Bleys is puzzled at first but thinks he is Merovee, someone he hasn't seen since he was a teenager.
Bleys then dances with Isabelle.
A hunt is organized to hunt something called a Three-tailed Seek. Isabelle asks Jericho to capture one for her.
Finally Jericho calls Silas, ready to leave. He checks to see if Isabelle is and they wrap things up and go back to the Ascendency roadside juice bar, where Lenny has been replaced by Benny, apparently for the crime of accepting some food from us.
They find the tiny people and offer them popcorn. They speak in a very high pitched voice, so Jericho shapeshifts his ears to hear them better. They won't come out when "big people" are around. It's just too dangerous.
Proceeding on, another Ascendency outpost is encountered at a fork in the road. No refreshments here, just guards. They are here to warn us to take the right hand stair path, not the left as there is something very dangerous down the left. They say there has been an "extinction event" which killed many guards so they are here to tell us to go the other way. Using our stair nav, we feel both routes will get us to the pyramid, but the left path is more direct, faster. Plus, Jericho has been itching to kill something. Telling the guards thanks, the group sets out on the left dangerous path. The guards protest, eventually asking us each to acknowledge we were arned. They also want to send 5 guards with us as observers. Most of the group protests, but Silas welcomes them. They are then stationed in front of the group as we proceed.
Eventually the site of the massacre is found, mostly just red splotches where poeple used to be. At that point something ahead appears, an 8 foot tall, 35 foot long gruesome centipede like creature. It looks at the first couple guards and they explode into red splotches. One of them throws a spear but it doesn't do much. The battle ensues… Isabelle laucnhes poison spores at it, Silas pulls out his gun and fires rounds made of silver and mercury, killing one of its eyestalks. Jericho manages to charge it then run up its back and starts going to work on it… eventually the creature is dispatched in a bloody mess.
We leave off this week as our heroes approach the Impossible Pyramid… (said to say this is where we will resume)