A Bride for Merlin
Campaign Log
Session XXVII, 5 January 2001
Merlin has asked to see Seonaid. Seonaid arrives with Fendrith and Audrey-Manette. It has come to Merlin’s attention from Duke Flark that there have been traces of concealed teleport anchors throughout Thelbane and in pirated recordings of Seonaid’s works. Since he’s busy with the crusade, he assigns the issue to her.
Seonaid says she’ll start with her management, and suggests Fendrith and Audrey-Manette get what they can from Flark. It’s mentioned that not only do they all have trumps of each other, they also are all initiates in the Fount of Power, unless the Broken Pattern erased Fendrith’s imprint.
A little experiment confirms this is the case. They decide to give Fendrith the first-level initiation later, and Audrey-Manette and Fendrith go off to find Flark.
Arriving at the suites for Duke Flark Jesby, Fendrith and Audrey-Manette are greeted by a servant. They are taken to Duke Flark as soon as possible, and are introduced.
"So, what brings you here today?" Flark asks, and Fendrith tells him Merlin told the two about the anchors. "Word gets around fast, doesn’t it?"
"You discovered them, right?" Audrey-Manette asked.
"I brought it to his attention."
"Did you know there were bootleg recordings that work this way, too?" Fendrith asks.
"Yes, I’ll show you them." Flark takes them to the Null Chamber. Audrey-Manette no longer feels the connection to the Keep, but does not make it known. He points to a bucket of the mirror things. Fendrith picks on up, but they do not work in the Null Chamber. Audrey-Manette asks if will work outside, and they take it outside to examine it. Flark says it will establish a connection with some place, depending on the intent of the person who set it. Fendrith asks if anyone tried it, and Flark says Shandor expressed a want to try it, but Flark could not accompany him.
"I think I’ll try and see where this goes," Fendrith says.
"Would you like me to get Shandor?" Flark asks.
"Yes, I guess two heads would be better than one."
Flark sends out a Logrus tendril to Shandor.
After the court session, Shandor stops at Alana’s, and says for all mirrors to be taken away, and for none to be brought in. He says this to her "maid", and says it’s for security reasons. And since she would be concerned about the lack of mirrors, he’ll remind her there are plenty of spells for reflection. Alana thinks he’s being paranoid, but complies.
Then he returns to Shandorways, checking his mirrors before removing them. He can prove they are not traced. He eliminates the mirrors in a flashy and efficient way. He ponders how far away he is from the ducal seat of Sawall... Shandor’s mother, Xerra Sawall, was the sister of Gramble of Sawall. If something happens to both Despil and Jurt, he’s the next in line...
Once the mirrors are gone, he checks Shandorways to make sure security is tight. As he does this, he is contacted by Flark through tendril.
"Yes, how can I help?"
"Fendrith wants to explore the mirror recording, and wandered if you’d like to join him."
"He does have the nasty habit of leaping before he looks, but I maybe able to help. Sure, I’ll be there shortly."
The tendril is withdrawn, and he heads out to met them.
Meanwhile, back in Merlinways...
Seonaid is trumping Kagariith Po. He accepts the call.
"Seonaid, how’s it going? Wait, I mean, Princess Seonaid."
"Oh, you heard! I was wondering if there should have been some press releases..."
"It’s alright, it couldn’t be helped."
They go on to discuss Luke and the holding of the concert. She says that Luke was shot, and then mentions bootleggers and the such. She asks for a copy of anything they’ve turned up. He says he’ll tell her, and that’s about all. She thanks him and sends her love.
Back in Thelbane, Shandor arrives.
Fendrith introduces Audrey-Manette, but it’s not needed. Now they’re all introduced.
"So, Flark tells me you wanted to trace the source..." Shandor says.
"It seems the best way to me..."
"So, how do you propose to do this?"
"As I understand, these are set up to allow someone to teleport to the general location. It would be to me there would be another anchor at the end. So if someone activates, then you maybe able to trace it to the source."
"The possibility does exists, but it seems improbable to me. Upon first finding these, I tried to trace it, but I couldn’t. There were many, many twists and turns back to the source."
"Maybe the twists and turns all connect." Flark interjects.
"That’s interesting, I never thought of that," Shandor says. He takes one mirror, and looks for differences, then does the same with another with the Logrus outside of the Null Chamber. The twists and turns could be like a tree structure, all connected to one point.
Upon examining, he doesn’t find anything unique to each one.
"Why don’t we each take a Logrus tendril and send it down, see if they meet up." Flark says. Fendrith looks one over, but doesn’t know how to turn it one. Shandor decides to set out two, the same as Flark, and see if they met up. Flark wonders if he can detach a tendril, to send it out in the mirror-tunnels.
Flark takes a Logrus tendril, says each time you go to a fork, divide. When you reach the end, send back information. Shandor says it should be able to duplicate itself, so it doesn’t keep getting smaller. A self-replicating, information-seeking tendril. However, they find they need to create a tendril, program it, and detach it. One for each mirror, over and over.
"Why don’t you try it, Shandor?" Flark asks.
"Sure, are you willing to help?"
"I have a few minutes to spare, but I must start military preparations."
Logrus up for Flark and Shandor, they decide to do one at a time, and Fendrith is welcomed to come along, who does. Shandor links them all up, pretty much taking charge. Shandor in the driver’s seat, they try and trace it back. Combined with Flark’s power, they make a hole in the connection, at the "door." They try and make a keyhole to peek through. They pretty much burn a hole through the "door" which they’ll have to step through. Fendrith, being gutsy, decides to go through. Shandor tells Flark to pull him back if he goes too far, and Shandor finds he can not go psychically all the way, it must be physical. The door goes both ways, Shandor realizes, and they both detect signs of a presence of the other side. Flark sends a tendril out for a guinea pig. The presence is getting stronger...
Fendrith cannot sense any of this. Both Flark and Shandor sense that it’s trying to get through. They try to close the door. Even Audrey-Manette senses something. They all drop the contact, and Shandor wraps the mirror in tendrils.
"Null Chamber?" Shandor asks, pointing to the room.
"Wait... let’s let it through," Flark says. This thing seems to be emitting cold. Audrey-Manette lingers near a door, just in case.
Shandor starts to take it to the null chamber, and sees that the mirror starts to expand. The tendrils vaporize, and the coldness leaves.
"Leave that one in there," Audrey-Manette says.
"Well, we didn’t learn anything today," Flark snidely remarks. "I think I’ll start the military preparations now." Flark invites Shandor, but Shandor wants to check out the Null Chamber for his own. So he goes to study it.
Audrey-Manette turns to Fendrith, saying they should probably report to Seonaid, but Fendrith asks Shandor how to activate one. He explains in detail, including the anchors for the other sender.
Fendrith comments on how they had had the element of surprise, but waited too long and could not attack in time.
Flark wonders if he can make a null chamber with an on/off switch. He said they could summon it back, if it looked too much to handle, and turn on the null. Fendrith mentions how at sometime they could just throw him through it. But he quickly says next week, not right now.
Flark summons his guards to create his army. Before he goes, Flark gives Shandor permission to study his chamber. Audrey-Manette decides to stick around to study the null chamber, too, and sends Fendrith to Seonaid.
Back in Merlinways...
Kagariith is still digging up dirt, and Fendrith shows up.
"So, did you find out anything?"
"No, not really. We attempted to follow the anchors, but we only tried one and ran into something... nasty. The entity at the end got wind of us, and tried to force its way back. Shandor threw it into Flark’s null chamber. We don’t know what it was, where it came for, anything," Fendrith says.
"So, nothing... But before we do anything, let’s go shopping. Let’s find more of these mirrors."
"How would your step-mother think about these?"
"I’d like to try it on my own, first."
Fendrith finds that Seonaid found nothing yet, and that Hraalk may join them shortly.
"I’m of the opinion that if someone went through these quickly, we could catch the person by surprise. However, we’d not know what we’d be getting into."
"Let’s see if we can’t find another one of these."
So they go shopping. She also finds out what Audrey-Manette is doing, the thing with the null chamber. But before they leave, Merlin goes storming in. He has parchment crumbled in his hand, and briefly pauses to see them.
"Jurt just declared a vendetta on me. He didn’t make it too specific, but I think this has something to do with Julia."
"He doesn’t think you’re keeping her against her will, does he?"
It’s a formal declaration of vendetta, filed with all the necessary shtuff with all the political shmuck. However, it’s against Merlin as the Duke of Kolvir and not the King. He found a loophole and it using it badly. Despil handed it to Merlin, though. It’s legal, sadly, without specifying the grounds of vendetta. Jurt told Despil, but Merlin doesn’t know. Despil must have found it warranted, for he let it go. They discuss the ground rules. So now Merlin hopes he kills Jurt before he kills him.
Fendrith wonders what would happens if Jurt showed up dead, and Merlin says he’d have to outlaw the person for interfering with the vendetta. Seonaid wonders why he’s just now made this formal when Jurt has tried to kill Merlin many times before.
If Merlin dies, Despil could take over. Merlin says he will make it so it’s JUST him and Jurt, and not other people like Seonaid. They decide to stall for time, since it’s really just a distraction. He says he wants to wait until they’re finished with Brand’s Pattern. Seonaid asks if she could be sent as a rep, but it must be handled duke to duke, Merlin to Despil.
Merlin asks about the other matter, and Seonaid fills him in on what they know. Merlin finds out about the back-tracking, and it told something or someone tried to force its way through. There was no way to tell if it was someone or something, it was just cold and Merlin seems upset with that revelation.
"Cold like a Trump?" Merlin asks.
"No, much colder. Beyond that of a Trump."
Seonaid pulls out a Trump of Julia. The contact goes through.
"Hi, something just came up... I’d like your opinion."
"Would you like to step through?"
"If Fendrith can come through." But the guard reminds her that she can’t leave. Seonaid asks if he comes with her, if it would be okay. The guard thinks about it... but it seems he can’t. Seonaid gives Fendrith the parchment and sends him through, with news of her new title as well.
Fendrith steps through, and Julia is in the backyard of the villa. She’s got an easel set up and has been doing some landscapes. She offers him some lemonade to drink, and they start catching up. He tells her about Seonaid’s recognition as Merlin's daughter, but not as heir to the crown; that the preparations for war are coming to a head; and that Jurt claimed vendetta against Merlin. He gives her the note for a clue why.
"Well, he’s always hated Merlin. Tried to kill him many times. But they resolved their differences around the time of the death of the previous king, or so it had seemed." Julia said. "Things haven’t been to good for us these last fifty years... Ever since I was stuck here, I haven’t seen him. I heard he came and left abruptly."
"Do you have any suggestions on how to proceed?"
"I really don’t know."
"I have a question. Completely unrelated to anything, but Audrey-Manette, Seonaid, and I were talking about initiating me into the Fount of Power. Considering what I did with the Fount and Broken Pattern, am I in any danger?" Fendrith asks.
"The Pattern should have erased the effects, you should be okay."
"I’ll think it over before I do, all the same. Well, I guess I’m done here, then..."
Seonaid decides to Trump Merlin.
"If I’m going to investigate things, I don’t need to be under the Black Watch..."
"Everything you need is in the palace."
"So it’s not just in the castle?"
"You can have people go into the marketplace and bring you things."
"Oh... I see." Seonaid seems disappointed.
"Just do the best job you can."
Seonaid contacts Fendrith with a Trump, who accepts it.
"Have you found out anything?"
"Nothing I didn’t already know."
"Can you do me a favor? Pick up one of those bootlegs on your way back."
"I think I’ll take the scenic route back."
"Do hurry, though... I am stuck here. When you get back, we’ll call Shandor to open it back up."
"All right, is that all?"
"Yes, for now."
"Then I’m leaving." He flies back to Chaos, stopping at Flark’s suites.
Flark is getting ready to fight in a war and lead his people.
Meanwhile, Audrey-Manette and Shandor are studying the null chamber.
"Would you like you study this, too?"
"Yes, please!"
Shandor discovers that his cousin is quite good in magic, in fact, better in some areas than he is.
So, Fendrith decides to go the Bazaar. He looks for one of those discs, but he doesn’t really know how to distinguish between a bootleg and a real one. He finds some in a nearby store. He decides to buy a selection. He gets what he thinks are bootlegs. Then he heads out to find Shandor, but he doesn’t know where he is and goes to find Seonaid.
Fendrith and Seonaid meet up, and Fendrith gives Seonaid the discs. She gives them all a once over with the Logrus, and is able to pick out the odd-ones. Seonaid turns and uses her charms to find out where the barracks are, but the guards would be suspicious, and heads out to the gardens with her six guards. Thus, she sends out a Logrus tendril to Shandor.
Shandor gets the tendril, but he can’t see who it is. He steps out to see it’s Seonaid, and accepts it.
"Yes, Seonaid?"
"Shandor, I hear you forced one of these open. Can you show me how to do it?"
"...Sure. Where are you right now?"
"Thelbane. Is Audrey-Manette with you, she has a Trump of me."
"I’d like her to come along as well, we may need someone on the outside."
"I was told something was there last time. Could you have stepped aside and let it come through?"
"I don’t know if it was after us or just wanting out. I think it was after us, what are you thinking?"
"Fendrith wants to just rush through, we have the advantage of surprise. If we side stepped it, maybe we wouldn’t have to attack."
"Sure, let’s try this."
"Cool! Grab Audrey-Manette, and head on over! Oh, wait can I speak to Audrey-Manette?" Seonaid asks. Shandor beckons her over and she joins in.
"Yes?"
"Are you going to stop by home and pick up some of my things?"
"Okay, fine. I didn’t know you could travel through Logrus, but I’ll see you shortly."
Audrey-Manette leaves Shandorways before returning to the Keep.
Shandor goes to Seonaid, and sees if he can set up a null-something or other. He sets up a Null Gazebo.
When Audrey-Manette returns, and someone is waiting to speak with me. He’s a cousin, missing an eye and an ear, and is confronting Sharu Garrul.
"This thing tells me I need your permission to take another bath. I need to recharge, then I will go on my way."
"May I ask what your business is?..."
"This is my way of protecting you by not telling you."
"Excuse me, I’ll be right back." And she blips to Julia.
Audrey-Manette has never been there before, and she comes across her painting. Before she can move, she feels something right behind. She sprints for Julia, to hide behind her.
"Why did you leave?" Jurt asks.
"Because you scared me!" Audrey-Manette says.
"What’s going on?" Julia asks.
"I’ll talk to you later, right now I need to talk to her first!" he shouts. Audrey-Manette is now cowering behind Julia. "I need to recharge for my business."
"What is your business?"
"I’m going to kill Merlin. Now you’re part of my conspiracy, you’re going to help me."
"No, I’m not!"
"Then you will die. Help me, or die."
Audrey-Manette stands up straight, stepping away from Julia.
"Fine. Let me put it another way. Help me or you and your wolf-friend will die."
Audrey-Manette tries not the laugh.
"Have you seen him lately?" Jurt smirks.
"Bring him to me, alive, so I can see him, and I’ll consider it."
Jurt blips out, brings a wolf-Keliith with a glowing white-hot crossbow bolt in his shoulder, with black, greasy smoke pouring out of the wound. After a moment, he blips away and returns alone.
Audrey-Manette ponders the choices. She could kill Jurt, and Keliith would die. She could let Jurt have his way, and let him kill the king. Then again, Keliith has probably accepted dying in the line of duty.
"Whatever you do will be found out. You will be hunted down and killed for what you have done. We will be avenged."
"Are you sure?"
"I know so."
"All I ask is for you to help me."
"To help kill a nice man whom I like, and to help you, a very mean person."
"Nice guys finish last."
Audrey-Manette has a change of heart, and tells him to meet her at the Chamber. Upon entering the chamber, she gives a loud sigh. She nods him towards the Fount, telling Sharu Garrul to let him through, to let him bathe. He gets a full recharge. He brings Keliith back, who is badly burned and hurt. She disintegrates the arrow, then passes him a large amount of power to activate his healing, to get him stable. She pulls out a Trump of Fendrith.
Back in the garden canyon, Shandor has built a null gazebo. He realizes that Audrey-Manette has not showed up yet. Shandor tells some of the guards to keep and eye on things, and others to look after her.
"So, what are we going to do?"
"We’re going to open the channel, and let what ever comes through comes through. If we can get around it, we’ll go on. If not, we’ll fight it here." Seonaid says.
Shandor knows he needs to stay and anchor things. He will stay to make sure the "thing" is either targeted at going through, or at the people going through it. Fendrith says he’ll go in a do it, Seonaid volunteers, but Shandor says NO. Those guys, the soldiers, will come after him. Shandor and Seonaid have a little spat about going. It’s opened, and when Fendrith opens in, the Logrus tendril Shandor set on him snaps. There’s no solid contact, the gateway is still open, but no tendril contact.
Fendrith sees he has jumped into a giant void with lots of mirrors. In the distance, there seems to be a silver earthworm headed towards him. He jumps back through, and tells them what he sees. Fendrith tells them it maybe coming closer, towards them. The gate has not been closed.
Shandor starts to feel something, and the gate closes. No coldness, anything, and they throw the mirror in the Null Gazebo.
Fendrith gets a contact and decides to step into the gazebo.
"When you come back out, I want to see what this place looks like. I can do it physically and psychically." He places his hand on Fendrith’s shoulder, and established eye contact. Fendrith lets him in, showing him the picture of what he saw. He also gets his impression that each mirror went to another one of those mirror-things.
Meanwhile, back in Shadow...
Audrey-Manette gets no one. She decides to Trump Seonaid.
Seonaid gets a contact, and accepts. Audrey-Manette bursts into tears, and tells her Merlin is in grave danger, and she needs to help him. She explains what happened with Keliith and Jurt, and tells her to go to Merlin immediately. They break the Trump, and Seonaid blips out.
Shandor and Fendrith both see that Seonaid just leaves. Fendrith shifts to dragon form and flies away through Shadow, towards the Keep. Shandor leaves before anything gets hairy for him.
Seonaid is looking for Merlin desperately. She runs across Mandor, and demands to be taken to Merlin.
"I think he’s in council with his generals. Shall I contact him?"
"No, I will." She pulls out a Trump, but he is warded. Mandor in turn takes her to the chamber, which is very warded. Merlin excuses himself, and joins them. Mandor is standing right there as Seonaid whispers to Merlin, "Jurt showed up. He recharged, and is after you. He threatened Keliith, using him as a hostage and bargaining chip to get what he wanted."
"I haven’t discussed things with Despil. That’s a violation of the terms of vendetta, isn’t it, Mandor?"
"Yes, I’m afraid that would be a technical violation." Mandor replies. Seonaid stands back, watching for reaction. Merlin thinks for a second.
"What are my options?" he asks, and Mandor thinks.
"As it is a technical violation, you could have the High Priest declare himn to be in contempt of the laws of the vendetta, but that would not stop him from pursuing the vendetta. That would make him an outlaw, to a degree."
"I want you to see Lord Bances immediately and inform him of all that has transpired, and see that the necessary steps are taken immediately. Please go NOW." Merlin says.
Mandor replies, "Yes, Your Majesty," and leaves.
"I suppose I should go back before I’m scolded by my guard. But if I’m going to be scolded, perhaps I could go see my brother?"
"No, please stay here. And if you see Jurt, don’t take any chances. Shoot to kill. Shoot first."
Seonaid goes back to the guards.
Merlin returns to the generals, and tells them there has been a disruption. He tells them Jurt has violated the terms of vendetta had time to discuss the terms of the vendetta. He takes it upon himself to inform the High Priest of this violation, and to have him proclaim Jurt anathema to the Courts of Chaos. Naturally, he expects all of them to order all in their households to comply with this edict, and looks at Despil in particular with that comment.
"It occurs to me, based on our experience based on the first Pattern-Fall War, we will need a means of protection, or a quick retreat. We will be depending upon Prince Benedict of Amber and other royals of Amber to assist us with an item of theirs, to protect us from shadow-storms. I’m also contacting someone else to help us escape to another realm of safety. That is all for now; Duke Flark, I need to speak to you."
After they depart, Merlin tells Flark that one of the people Jurt attacked was Keliith. Flark requests to immediately seek out and destroy Flark. Merlin says no request is needed for his forces, but Flark cannot leave Thelbane except for the war. But he also wishes Flark’s forces his sincerest wishes in finding Jurt.
Then Flark requests, once the crusade is over, to search for him personally. Merlin says he has contemplated the Black Watch, but as nobles, they need to take care. Flark asks if he can send "subordinates" in his stead.
Flark decides to call together Felara, Laan, Shandor, and possibly Seonaid.
Seonaid, still in the room, takes paper and pen, takes about 15 minutes of her time to write an article to spin-city the whole thing of Jurt and Keliith. She signs it with a penname, the whole thing written as from the perspective of a Seonaid fan. She sends it to her manager, getting it to be faxed to all her fan clubs.
Meanwhile, out in Shadow...
About half way to the Keep, Fendrith gets a slight change of plans. He thinks he doesn’t have to go all the way, just far away from Shandor. He sets down wherever he was, in a large, populated city. They are running away in fear, and Fendrith feels rather bad. He changes to dragon-man form, and they scream even louder. He pulls out his Trump deck and Trumps Seonaid.
"Fendrith, what’s up?"
"After you blipped out, I decided to leave, too, to avoid any question. I’m out in Shadow right now, but I think I’ll come back."
"‘Home’?"
"No, with you."
"Perhaps you should stay out there. Jurt showed up at Audrey-Manette’s place, and used Keliith as a hostage. Merlin has declared him anathema of the Courts, so if you see Jurt, make sure he ends up quite dead. If you could swing by and make sure Audrey-Manette’s okay, please do."
"All right, will do." He closes the contact and then pulls out Audrey-Manette’s, and she accepts it after realizing it’s not hostile.
"Why the HELL didn’t you pick up when I trumped you earlier?"
"I’m sorry, we’d just almost tangled with something nasty."
"That’s okay, I understand."
"Is everything okay?"
"If you call someone coming in, taking over my Fount, and almost killing Keliith 'okay'... But he seems to be doing better."
"Can I come through?"
"Yeah, sure." Audrey-Manette brings him through. "Will you do me a favor? Watch over me while I heal up Keliith?"
"Sure thing."
Now Audrey-Manette puts all her energy into healing him. She gets a long way before someone contacts her. She stops and focuses on sensing the contact. It’s not hostile, but inquisitive and insistent. She turns to Fendrith and tells him to be prepared to back her up.
Audrey-Manette accepts it. It’s Merlin.
"I need to talk to you."
"Shall I come through, or shall you?"
"I’ll come through." Merlin steps through, nods to Fendrith and is shocked at Keliith's state. "Shouldn’t we move him to a bed?"
"I didn’t want to move him yet, but I think it’s okay now."
Merlin picks up him up and takes him to a bedroom. He says that one of the powers of the Fount of Power can do is create a gateway, when Trump will be temporarily useless. He hoped that she would stand by and get something open in case they need.
"Sir, I hadn’t planned on going into the war. I was going to stand by here for just the sort of thing." She had taken him to Keliith’s quarters, which she’d never been in. He has three separate armoires, one containing clothes for his child-form, and another clothing for his adult-form.
The third armoire is his armory. She finds various weapons, including some blasters and grenades. She pockets an easily concealed blaster, and Fendrith tries out a larger "squad support" one.
There’s a bookshelf with books on espionage, warfare, spells, and textbooks.
Merlin puts him on the bed.
She tells him the whole story with Jurt and Julia and so on. During the talk, she gets a contact, a worried one. She asks if everything is okay, and Audrey-Manette says yes, so is Keliith. Julia sends three lights, part of Hydra to help her. Then she notices someone else is there.
"Merlin is here."
"Oh. Okay."
"Would you like to speak to him?"
"Not over a Trump contact."
"Would you like me to bring him in?"
"Not yet... Maybe next time. Hydra should be able to help you. These are good at helping with magic, and should help with management of the Keep."
"Oh, thank you so much!" Audrey-Manette replies and drops the contact. The lights hover near her. Merlin says he needs to return, and will have Seonaid keep in contact. She apologizes, but he says it’s okay.
Meanwhile, Seonaid gets a Trump from Julia.
"Do you remember Hydra?"
"Yes."
"Here are some more." She sends Seonaid five more. They contain most of the same stuff Audrey-Manette got, and then some.
"Julia... you know about Jurt?"
"Yes, they came up over here."
"They?"
"When Audrey-Manette fled, she came to me. I’m afraid I wasn’t much help."
"I see. I brought Merlin up to date, and basically declared open season on Jurt. I guess I should be frank with you; Merlin basically told me to kill Jurt when I see him."
"He did what he saw fit."
"You have a say in this, too."
"I don’t, really. He’s not how he used to be."
"If you can’t give me any argument..."
"Just protect yourself, dear."
Duke Flark is having a conference with Baron Laan, Lady Felara, Lord Andreas Chanicut, and Lord Shandor Sawall, with Princess Seonaid rounding up the party. Seonaid now has six glowing pinpoints of light hovering near her. Logrus says each one is a spell engine, a separate entity. Shandor sees these could be mini-spikards. Also, these six things are warding his perception of her. Flark realizes he saw them on Julia.
"I suppose you’re wondering why I called you all here today... Could you tell us a bit more about Jurt’s attack on Keliith?"
"In short, he used Keliith as a hostage in compliance of another pawn."
"Your Grace, we must start making inquires with the Guild of Assassins."
"I wonder if this is not beyond the ability of assassins. Seonaid and I are bound to the Black Watch, otherwise I would go myself. I feel that House Jesby should respond to this harshly."
"My assume that is why you invited my niece, and these others?"
"Yes."
Laan calls upon Lords Andreas and Shandor to help with this. Seonaid says it was an attack upon her family, and would appreciate the help. Andreas immediately agrees, and asks what pieces they want. Flark wants the head.
"Have any of you actually encounter him recently?" Shandor asks.
"Audrey-Manette recently encountered him," one of the glowing orbs says to Seonaid.
"I was wondering if you could gives us more details on the attack," Flark asks, and Seonaid mentions the Fount at the Keep. Flark knows that the King plans to use the Keep as a back-up escape plan. So Jurt's power is limited, and if harassed long enough, we could run him down. Seonaid says we don’t know how limited his power is, and it may have just been a precaution and not needed. Flark wanders if there’s a way to put a shield around the Fount.
"Does anyone know who the new guardian of the Keep is?" Flark asks.
"The last guardian of record was Jasra." Seonaid says.
"You seem to be uncomfortable." Flark says.
"I don’t know what you mean."
"At any rate, if Jasra is the current master..."
"Excuse me, regardless of who is the master, from what Merlin says the master is loyal, or at least neutral." Laan interrupts.
"Then why did they allow Jurt to recharge?"
"That’s a good question. I trust this won’t happen again."
"Then perhaps the first actions should be for the party to go to the Keep and make sure Jurt cannot recharge." Flark says.
"Where would Jurt probably be hiding?"
Seonaid pauses to contact Kagariith, but there’s as yet no reaction to the "flyer" she sent out.
"I suggest that the principle force of the party, Felara, Andreas and Shandor, we find suitable persons to scout and assassinate, starting at the Keep."
"There is no reason for him to go back there." Seonaid says. "He’s probably in Chaos, working towards getting to Merlin. When Merlin goes out on this crusade, he will be vulnerable to attack and should be watched over. However, if the Keep is a fall back, with Merlin’s agreement, secure the Keep."
"Can Jurt be contacted," Flark asks, "with Logrus?"
"I don’t know if whoever controls the Keep would like to have Jesby on their grounds," Seonaid says.
"I would like to know who is the guardian, and why they allowed Jurt to do so." Flark says.
"Do we know what exactly happened to Keliith? And I suggest that Keliith be protected by the House guards, wherever he is," Laan brings up.
"Shouldn’t he be under the Black Watch?" Seonaid asks.
Laan nods. "You can try and contact him."
"You seem very sketchy on the details, niece. We know far to little. Could you contact your source?" Flark asks Seonaid. He wants to know his abilities and such.
"We could require this information from His Majesty." Laan says.
"Father has told me so I can tell you some of what I know." Seonaid says.
Shandor says some of the powers, living Trumps, etc.
"Any attacks must be instant." Laan says, and Flark suggests Primal Chaos, and Seonaid agrees.
The problem is that Primal Chaos is ill suited for a fast-striking weapon, as Primal Chaos is slow (but relentless). There’s a difference between trying to create a weapon, slow, and a white-hot blast. Flark has found Seonaid’s answers cagey, evasive and useless.
At this point, Baron Laan discretely catches Flark's attention, and makes a subtle gesture towards Lady Felara, as if to ask, send her to find out the truth? Flarks subtly nods, yes. Then Lady Felara leaves. Seonaid notices nothing. Shandor, on the other hand, notices all of that, but he does nothing. Seonaid excuses herself, rather upset. The others stay, to discuss things.