9-27-05:

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                So we decided that Olivia would throw an illusion on herself so that she would look like Rhiannon riding on a Pegasus. And then she would use her newfound ability to fly and distract the NSA guys. Hopefully lead them off a ways so that I could sneak past them unseen. To make sure they couldn’t see me, Sierra did something to make me invisible.

                It all worked beautifully! I was ready to believe that that was Rhiannon up on that Pegasus, so needless to say, the NSA guys took right off after her.

                I headed up this path that looked to me like it was going to lead to the springs where we thought Rhiannon might be. Not too long after I left the highway, I found myself walking thru the damnedest thing…..a real, honest-to-goodness Smurf Village. Just like the cartoons. (Funny, they looked shorter on TV)  As I was carefully picking my way thru (I figured Rhiannon might get upset if I waffle-stomped a Smurf or two) I heard what was definitely a girl laughing and talking to somebody. I shook off the invisibility so I wouldn’t frighten her and walked very slowly and calmly into the clearing, making sure that the puppy we brought along was very visible.

                When I got close enough, I could see who was making all the noise. And there was Rhiannon in one of the springs, laughing and splashing water at this “creature” that was there in the water with her. It looked vaguely like a man, but larger and made entirely out of mud. Since I didn’t want to startle either of them I just stood there, petting the puppy until she noticed me. When she did, she just kinda stared at me for awhile before she asked, “Who are you”. When I introduced myself, she went into something like a trance for a bit, shook her head and recited what had to be the Webster’s definition of “Jazz”, and asked me why my mommy named me that. So I explained what my real name was and that Jazz was just a nickname. Then I told her that I had found this lost little puppy and asked her if she would help me take care of him. She said “bye bye” to the mud creature and **poof** it was gone.

                After we played with the puppy for awhile, I asked her if she wanted to come with me and meet my friends. She agreed and we headed back down the path, where we met Sierra coming up the path. I introduced them (Rhiannon was insisting on being called “Princess”) and we all headed back to the UAV.  Things went remarkably well, except when Rhiannon insisted on making the UAV “Pretty”, and before we knew it, the thing looked like the Scooby Van! Michael was not very amused, but I laughed out loud!

                Right about then, Olivia returned from her “excursion”, Rhiannon was a little taken back by Olivia’s appearance, but I told her that Olivia is black, I am gold, so is Meredith, Michael and Vesta are greenish, we’re all just different colors. She seemed a little overwhelmed until Olivia asked her if she wanted to play the Nintendo game that she had picked up in Montrose for Debbie. Rhiannon went for that right away, and while she was playing Olivia filled us in on what she had seen on her little trip.        

                Olivia had seen around the hill, a group of 7 guys who looked like the “militia” out of Denver, under attack from what had to be 5 of those blood mages out of Boulder that we heard about. We figured this was a perfect chance…….if both of these groups were out looking for Rhiannon, and if we could help them take each other out, that would give us some breathing room to get Rhiannon someplace safe! But a big concern for me was Rhiannon in the here and now. What might she do if the fighting got to close?

                We drove up the road to get as close to the ongoing battle as we could without being seen, and I told Rhiannon that some of my friends and I were going to go outside for a little while, would she be okay playing Nintendo by herself? She was okay with it, and I told her that my “other” friends would stay in the Scooby-van to keep her company. I tried to glare at the NSA guys to let them know they had better behave themselves, but somehow my glare just doesn’t work like Olivia’s does.

                We snuck up the road to get closer and saw the bloodmages taking their own sweet time, picking off the Denver guys one at a time. And boy! Were they having fun! Let me tell you, they are every bit as terrifying as we were led to believe. I would have been plenty happy to turn and run, but when were we going to get a better opportunity? And it had to be done. These “things” cannot be allowed to continue on the way they have been.

                So we took cover down by the river, behind some rocks, to observe for awhile. Sierra hacked into some electronics that the Denver guys were wearing and found out that there was some “Air support” incoming. We saw a jet swoop down and before it fired, Olivia hurled a magic missile at it, causing it to lose control and swerve. Michael contacted one of the NSA guys back in the UAV and had him send in a volley of grenades right on top of the Denver guys.  Watching those grenades come flying over the hill was a pretty scary sight! And then, one flew off course and headed our way! Boy did we scramble for better cover!

                We were all hit by debris, Sierra seemed to take the worst of it. So I did some healing on her real quick.  And she went invisible hoping to find a better place to hide. After the smoke cleared, Olivia tried to throw a cloud of some sort at the blood mages but something went really wrong, because instead of what she wanted…there was a skunk. A really pissed off skunk. Ready to let loose right at the whole bunch of us. The first thing I could think of was to compel it to stop, and it did. Right in the act of lifting it’s tail. When the plane started to turn back our way, the mages let loose and fired at it, taking it out completely. Since the mages were aware that the area was under attack, Michael called for another volley of grenades. Once again, one went astray, right at us! And once again we were all injured, most of it slight. When the smoke cleared this time, the mages were all dead.  So I did some healing on Michael, myself and Sierra; it seems being invisible didn’t hide her from shrapnel.

                We checked out the equipment that both groups had, but most of it was pretty much toasted. I think Michael and Sierra took a few doo-dads, and we, of course, took all the ammo we could find. Sierra checked out all the stuff and found a couple GPS units on the Denver guys, so Michael called in a couple of eagles and had them fly off with ‘em, just to mess with the Dragon’s head! We also “liberated” a couple of flat bed trucks that seemed to be in pretty good shape.

                When we got back to the Scooby-van, Rhiannon was still playing games, happy as a clam. So we took off again. Michael in the Scooby-van with the NSA guys and Meredith. Olivia was driving one truck and I was driving the other truck keeping Rhiannon with me. Before we left we radioed back to the House, Malcolm suggested we meet him in Ridgeway to discuss Rhiannon. 

                A few miles down the road, we almost ran over a group of 13 NSA guys. They were in a Hummer being pulled by a couple of broken down horses. Michael asked “our” NSA guys if they knew this group, they did, so they “talked” them into surrendering. Actually all they wanted was someone to look at their wounded and some food. Turns out that they had been eating whatever they could find, and bleeding the horses. So Olivia and I did what we could for the wounded guy, but he was really hurt. Maybe when we have time to recover some of our energy overnite we can do some more for him, but we did ease most of his pain.

                Rhiannon was getting a little restless, so Olivia asked her if she wouldn’t do something to make the horses better. After a bit of conversing between the group as to what she should do to the horses, Rhiannon got quite frustrated with us, and Olivia asked her to change them into Pegasus. So Rhiannon did just that, and more. Because all of a sudden they wanted to exact a little revenge on the NSA guys for mistreating them. Michael managed to talk them out of that, and they flew off. That’s when it dawned on all of us what Olivia had done. We’re pretty sure that the Denver folk reported back that they had seen Rhiannon flying off on a Pegasus, and there are now two Pegasus (pegasuses?)flying around the area. If the Dragon has any more of his people in the area, they can waste their time chasing those two around!

                With our new NSA guys onboard, we set off for home, again, and we made it to Ridgeway without any more problems. We were told at the roadblocks that Malcolm was waiting for us at the highschool. He met us there with a woman from the House who had experience working with the autistic, “Before”. She took Rhiannon off for some evaluation testing.

                We handed all the NSA guys over to the Ridgeway officials to be “processed”. The counselor that Malcolm brought along reported back that she thinks that Rhiannon needs to be in a controlled area until she can adjust to all the changes around her. And that since Rhiannon used to be in a work therapy program involving horses, it would be absolutely ideal if we could find something similar for her. She also expressed the opinion that Rhiannon would never harm anyone, even to the extent of being incapable of defending herself.

                Michael remembered seeing, from the top of Black Mesa, a herd of horses in a fairly isolated area that had a few buildings and a couple of small ponds for Rhiannon to play in. All of this in an area controlled by the Navajo and guarded by the Thunderbirds! Malcolm arranged to have an ambassador from the Dine’ meet us in Cortez in two days to discuss the possibilities of hiding Rhiannon there.

                The meeting then fell into a discussion of The Dragon of Denver, that if Rhiannon really did make him, is it possible she made him incapable of really hurting anyone. I say, It’s a moot point. Because even if he isn’t hurting anyone, his “minions” sure as Hell are. Michael, Olivia and I searched the trucks we brought in before we handed them over to the Ridgeway folk and I found a suit of “armor” that had a bunch of electronics hooked into it, since poor Sierra keeps getting knocked around, I gave it to her. Hopefully it will keep her a little safer, and with the electronics, who know what she may be able to make it do. Then with nothing else to do I took a nice hot shower and hit the sack.

9-28-05:

                We headed out for Cortez, taking a few Ridgeway folk with us. On the way we finally had some time to talk to Meredith. Poor thing is so confused she has no idea what is going on. But she did decide to change her name to Anij and go with us to the House. She said it seemed like her only option. We were met by the Baron of Cortez, who told us that a Navajo Elder will be arriving to meet with us tomorrow. We killed a little time, Michael asked Rhiannon to change the Scooby-van back to its old paintjob, and she did, without batting an eye.

                Olivia played Nintendo with Rhiannon while I went out looking for some games or puzzlebooks for her. Olivia heard from some townies that they had spotted a male Drow living with the Navajo, so she decided to go looking for him, so we all went with her, Sierra riding one of the bikes, the rest of us in the Scooby-van. Not too far from town we ran across some Mormons who id'd themselves as being from Sanctum Joseph. One of them was hiding by the side of the road and took out the windshield with somekind of BFG; he also did some serious damage to Olivia. Michael shot back, and killed him with a single shot. Olivia floored the UAV, aiming for the center of their camp, killing 3 of them.

                Sierra threw some missiles and put one of them down. The last poor, stupid one, accidentally shot himself! When things calmed down a little I healed Olivia up and Sierra jacked into the one still alive. We looted around a little and got 4 more of those neuroguns with ammo, an electronic solar array, and another one of those medical devices that strap onto the arm……this one with instructions! I didn't get it all, something about nanobytes to repair injuries. It wouldn't have made sense to me "Before", and it sure doesn't now, but Sierra seemed awful excited about it so I gave it to her.

                Olivia managed to take all the shattered pieces of the windshield, and mend them back into one piece, pretty cool; I'm going to have her teach me that one! We moved on and got to the roadblock at Black Mesa, when we explained that Olivia was looking for a Drow living with the Navajo, they allowed us to pass. And find him we did! A huge 6'7" teenager by the name of Alfred. Apparently "before" he was the typical 90-pound weakling who everyone made fun of. Olivia convinced him that he should come with us. He is soooooo shy! Some of the locals started giving Alfred a bad time, and were too stupid to see that they were pissing Olivia off, big time! So she threw some of her magic missiles at them, boy, did they have it coming! She threw us all out of the Scooby-van so she could take some time to "introduce" Alfred to one of his new "duties". Poor guy didn't have any idea what he was getting himself into!

                On our way back to Cortez, we ran across another bunch of Mormons, these in 3 Hummers, asking for medical assistance. Sierra was out on a bike again, and since they were assuming she was an officer of some kind, she sort of herded them all into one small area. Olivia threw a sleep on the group, and 4 of 'em hit the ground. I held the one uninjured guy left so that Sierra could jack into him. The injured guy realized that we are the group who took Sanctum Levi, and Olivia scared him into giving us some info. Sierra got out of the guy she had jacked into, that they were from Moab, and they are gearing up for a big assault, probably against the SDN. She also got a bunch of ID and pass codes.

                When we searched the Hummers we found that the two troop transports held first aid supplies and a few firearms. We took them all, of course. But the ammo-carrier? It was full of frozen steaks and seafood that had been seized from the Vegas Overlords. So, we "liberated" them and took them back to Cortez for a Royal Feast!

                When we got back to town, Olivia took Alfred off for some further "initiation rituals", and the rest of us went to clean up. When dinner was just about ready, someone was kind enough to let Olivia and Alfred know, and we all set down for some serious pigging out! When we were finishing up, Malcolm asked the scouts if we were up to "Taking Moab". Sierra filled him in with the info she jacked out of those Mormons we "ran into" earlier. It was decided that when Malcolm meets with the SDN ambassador tomorrow, he will have to tell him all we know regarding the plans the Mormon's are making to attack them. We then decided to talk to the Overlord we'd run into in Montrose to see if he had any information that would be useful.

                When Michael told Malcolm that we'd leave first thing in the morning, Olivia asked, "Why not leave right now?". Michael said, "Because they won't let us in after dark". But Olivia assured him that she could get us in, so we took off. Michael taught Alfred how to drive the Scooby-van on the way. We also took one of the flatbed trucks and loaded it with the bikes we've taken from the Mormons the last 2 days.

                When we got to Montrose, Olivia went and talked to the sentries and they let us right in! Before we settled in for the night, Olivia, Sierra and I went back to the toy store, Olivia's looking for a Magic 8-Ball; apparently she thinks she can use magic to change it into something that will actually be able to foretell the future. Sierra was looking for some kind of electronics stuff. But both of them struck out. The shopkeeper recommended that Sierra check with Brother Aaron for her items, and Olivia bought a couple pony figures for Rhiannon. We went to Brother Aaron's and found Michael already there. When Sierra explained what she was looking for, he didn't have them either, and suggested she check with "Those in Vegas" or the NDR, apparently they both have been hoarding the newest technologies.

                So, batting zero, we went to the bookstore across town. We were looking for any kind of books dealing with role playing games and "real" magic. Unfortunately, they'd all been snatched up long ago. I headed to the religious area and found some books regarding The Golden Dawn and OTO. And a couple real treasures….copies of the 33rd Level of the Scottish Rite Training Manual, and The Book Of Mormon! "Know thy enemy", Michael said when he saw me with it. He found a book of SCA armor designs, and a copy of An Assassin's Handbook.

                Olivia spotted a gorgeous quartz crystal ball, and an Islamic prayer rug that just sparkled with the magic that had been woven into it. Apparently, both she and Sierra had seen something that looked like a small dragon 'popping' around the shop, and during our bargaining they asked the shopkeeper about them and she told us that they had been around for about a week now, she's been feeding them cookie-dough. When we finished there, we headed for the Overlord's Inn and got rooms. Olivia went to speak to the Overlord and traded the bikes we brought for all his info about Moab. He also told her that there were 3 more Drow in town, in jail for theft. So she asked me to go with her in the morning to see about getting them out.

09-29-05

                At breakfast, the Overlord gave us some current satellite photos (boy would I love to know where he's getting those from!) and some recent reports from travelers. There are at least 3 units of 20 tanks each, plus 20 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 30 troop carriers. Intercepted communications indicate that the NDR is planning 60 days of maneuvers, for training green recruits, in and around the Moab area, with operations beginning in January at the earliest. Outside the Inn a truck pulled up and 6 Jawas pop out. Just when I start to think that nothing can surprise me anymore, a real honest-to-God Jawa appears in my life to prove me wrong. Well, they were quite entranced by the Scooby-van, until Michael and Alfred shooed them away. Turns out they work for the Overlord and were there to take the bikes we'd promised him. They finished loading the bikes and left us an audioanamatronic copy of the robot from Terminator 2, a small gift from the Overlord.

                Alfred went back to the Inn to get Sierra; she was soooo excited, she immediately started making plans for what she can do with it. Olivia and I went to the Police Station. They had an auction of prisoners and confiscated goods planned for 9:00. She asked to have a look at the prisoners, and we were shown back to the cells. And there we found the Drow, 2 girls and one guy. It looks like they were all in their teens when they changed. They'd been arrested for killing some cattle.

                It seems they'd been trying to steal one, for food, but things got a little out of hand and they ended up killing several. Olivia asked if they would "mend their ways" if she "freed" them. 2 of them tried throwing some Drow attitude at her. Big mistake! So Olivia laid down the law according to Olivia, and they had to agree that coming with us would beat staying in Montrose as a slave to who knows what. In the cell with them was another Elf, a Silver. She was also in for stealing food. Olivia and I asked her if she was interested in joining us, and exchanging some honest work for food, shelter and protection. She liked the idea, so Olivia made the arrangements to get them out.

                So, with the newest members of the Kingdom, we headed back to Cortez to make our report to Malcolm. When we got there, he was already meeting with the SDN ambassador. Malcolm sent for us once they'd finished and told us that the Dine' had agreed to take Rhiannon and watch over her. After hearing our report, Malcolm told us to head back to the House, that he was going to stay in Cortez for another day. On our way home, we were passing the radio tower where we had first seen the Wooly Mammoths.

                I was looking around, just to see if there was any trace of them, when I saw some kind of movement in a ravine off to the side. Michael had Alfred back the Scooby-van up so we could take a closer look. Michael spotted at least 4 sets of footprints; Human, not Mammoth. So Michael set to following them and spotted a group of the Bloodmages hiding in some brush with their weapons targeted on the Scooby-van. So he radioed back their coordinates, Olivia punched them in, and set off a volley of grenades.

                The mages saw them headed their way and took off running. Well, either Olivia did something wrong or she knew which way they were going to run, because the grenades overshot their original hiding place, but the mages managed to run right into the area where the grenades did land. When they first started to run, Michael shot one of them with a neuro-gun and brought him back to the Scooby-van. Even though we know that the neuro-toxin will keep him paralyzed for 48 hours, we were taking NO chances and tied him up good and tight. Michael and Sierra "removed" his rifle from his arm, Sierra kept it to study and she took the opportunity to jack into him, but didn't get any useful info, apparently there wasn't much in his mind but madness.

                Before we left, we went back to search their campsite, didn't find anything of use, but we did find the creepiest looking……thing. It was a cat, but it looked like it had been mummified and then assimilated by the Borg. It was awful! We made it the rest of the way back to the House safely. Michael took his prisoner and locked him up. Olivia took her "indentured" servants to Izzy and asked her to find them some work assignments, then she took Alfred "home" to the Tower. I ran into them in a hallway, and she told me that while she was in the kitchen, a small fire had broken out, apparently inside a bag of cornmeal. She was thinking maybe it was a dragon like she and Sierra had seen in the bookstore. When I told Michael about it at dinner, he remembered that before we had left the House, there had been reports of small fires scattered thru the House and that something had been gnawing thru wires and other things.

                Olivia asked Izzy to have the "spies" report to the Tower, to see if they had any ideas. I had gone to the Temple to see my new books safely stowed away and to go to bed when I "felt" a commotion coming from the Tower. When I got there I was just in time to see how Olivia had spent her time since we got back. Seems she went outside and summoned herself a familiar. I'm not sure what it is, but it's cute. Looks kinda like a fox, but its got 6 tails. It calls itself a Vulpix and has a real arrogant air to it. I think Olivia is going to have her hands full with this one!

09-30-05

                My oh my, today was a strange one, even for us! I was in the hall this morning, having breakfast, when Olivia arrived with her familiar, Otsune. My! What a stir they caused! The kids in the hall got real excited and then they started whispering amongst themselves.

                Olivia asked Debbie if she knew what was going on, and we could all tell that she did, but she denied it. Olivia gathered her "spies" and asked them, but they all played stupid, too. When Olivia put some more pressure on Debbie, she finally admitted that the kids had been seeing Pokeman running around the House for a couple weeks now. And they think that Otsune looks like some of the Pokeman.

                They had been trying, just amongst themselves, to make Pokeballs to trap them in, but hadn't had any luck making the balls. As the kids started to volunteer more information, it turns out that a couple kids "created" the Pokeman out of sheer boredom one-day. But after they got loose, they started to multiply, and that was when the fires and other acts of destruction started. The kids knew enough to figure out that they had better do something, so they managed to catch a few in some live-release vermin traps they'd found in the attic.

                They took them outside to release them, so they're also on the loose outside as well! Izzy took charge and gathered some volunteers and sent them off in "hunting" parties. Olivia had one of the kids fetch her an old plastic Pokeball, and set about trying to figure how to transform it into a "real" one. Michael volunteers his services to make some metal spheres for her to use. Robin, the Silver Elf that we'd brought back from Montrose, had been clearing tables in the area and listening to all of this, suggested just asking them to leave. Well, presented with such a simple suggestion, how could we say "no"? So Michael, Olivia, Sierra and I went off to do just that.

                We crawled up into the attic, since the kids said that was where they'd seen most of them. After poking around for a few minutes, we found some. They looked a lot more like real, wild animals than cartoon characters. When we had a few of them around us, we tried asking them to leave the House, but they just laughed at us and disappeared! So much for that idea. But then Sierra did the oddest thing. She sat down, right in the middle of the attic, closed her eyes and looked like she was ready to perform some kind of spell. So the rest of us all stepped back to give her room to do whatever she was going to do. And the next thing I know…………………

                I was in the hall this morning, having breakfast, when Olivia arrived with her familiar, Otsune. My! What a stir they caused! The kids in the hall got real excited and all started to clamor that they wanted to see Otsune and to pet her, and "Where did you get her?" I had a case of Déjà vu that almost threw me out of my chair! I looked at Michael, and he just shook his head. We looked at Olivia, and she looked as if some one had slapped her. I leaned over to Sierra and asked "What the Hell, did you do?" She kind of laughed and said "The kids made them by wishing they had something to play with, so I just wished them away." And the 4 of us are the only ones who remember!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                So we all retired to the Tower to think of ways to prevent the kids from doing it again. Especially since they've seen Otsune to put the idea in their heads! That's where we were when Malcolm returned and came looking for us. Seems he has some ideas and wanted to bounce them off his Scouts. He wanted us to know that he has decided that sometime, probably very near in the future; the Kingdom is going to have to attack Grand Junction.

                The Dine' ambassador told him that the Mormons sent in some forces and they took it without a fight. Malcolm is afraid that they may try to take Montrose next. While he was in Cortez, an ambassador from Montrose showed up looking for him. The leaders there are afraid of the same thing, so the Kingdom now has an "agreement" with Montrose. They aren't really a member, but definitely an ally. He also said that he's planning this, looking ahead to us going on to Vegas to free as many of the changelings being held by the Overlords, as possible. He wants us to think about it. Maybe while he leads the Kingdoms forces against Grand Junction, the Scouts can go to Vegas. The Mormons probably wouldn't be looking for anyone sneaking thru the heart of their territory while a major attack is going on. And the Overlords would probably be so busy watching and enjoying 2 of their main adversaries take on one another, that they wouldn't expect an attack right in the heart of their territory. So it could work!

                Olivia wanted to contact Jesse about it but Malcolm vetoed the idea. After Malcolm left to go back to his own quarters, we talked a little more about things that need to be done before we try anything. Olivia decided that tomorrow she was going to check out a couple of the bikes and take Alfred with her to Colorado Springs. She wants to see if Jesse will allow Cordelia to leave. She's also going to introduce Alfred to the Drow who are living in the foothills down there, and see if any of them have changed their minds about moving up here. I can't wait to see how some of the populace will react to an even larger Drow community here!