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Dear
Diary
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04-15-06: I was working in the Temple this morning when one of Malcolm's pages came barging in, all out of breath to tell me that I needed to get to the communications room, "right now". So I ran thru the House as fast as I could. Olivia and Alfred were already there. Olivia held a finger to her lips and pointed over to the radio where Malcolm was standing next to the radio operator. He said, "please say again." And a voice over the radio said, "I repeat, the Overlord of the Excalibur is to be sent down. His belongings will be sold off. All chattel will be sold April 25th and his property sold May 1st." Malcolm asked what sort of goods would be acceptable in trade. "What do you have?" he was asked. Malcolm declined to give details, but did say that the Kingdom will attend. They went on to tell Malcolm make sure that any representatives fly proper Kingdom colors to identify themselves while in the Vegas Territories, and we'd be given a safe conduct pass at the border. The radio operator signed off with a nod from Malcolm. Michael
and Vesta appeared just then so Malcolm filled us all in on what had happened.
He was summoned from his rooms when the radio operator received a message
that the Overlord of the Bellagio wanted to speak to the King of the Outlands.
The combined Overlords of Vegas, have decided that after his defeat at
the hands (or foot!) of Malcolm, Excalibur had been disgraced and for
the sake of the prestige of all the other Overlords, he must be 'sent
down'. All his property has been seized and is to be auctioned off in
two weeks, he will then be sent into the desert to whatever fate awaits
him. We
made up a list of trade goods to take. Those items we got from Sanctum
Levi are coming in very handy. Malcolm called in Connors and asked if
she and her men would go along to provide support. She said that she,
Dallas and O'Bannon would go. Carson has apparently gone looking for a
homestead; he's found a woman who wants to get out of the House, and she's
not sure when he'll be back. On our way out, Olivia asked me if I would enchant some more of her CZ's with Faerie Fire to use as trade goods. I agreed and I'm going to start right now. 04-18-06 Olivia came to the temple today to let me know she finally heard back from Jesse. He refused to provide us any goods for trading. "We do not trade for peoples lives." But, being the sweetheart he is, he promised not to bomb Vegas while we're there. What a prince! 04-22-06 We
left at sunrise. Olivia, Alfred and myself in the Scooby-Van with the
more fragile items taking the lead, Michael and Vesta driving a flatbed
with some of the bulkier trade goods bringing up the rear. Dallas, Connors,
O'Bannon, and Carson in a troop carrier filled with the majority of the
trade goods in the center. We made it to Cortez with no problems. Saw
the group of Traders we'd met on the way to Ridgeway. They'd done pretty
well on their trip to Albuquerque, but not so well in Cortez; the Market
was pretty awful. They said it reminded them of Bartertown, the place
Tina Turner ran in that Mad Max movie. We found out what they meant really
fast. We
hadn't been there in a while, and the place had really gone downhill.
The whole town was surrounded by refugees - some in tents, some in cars
pulled by horses or cows. The Market was still on the east side of town,
and there were people swarming around the main roadway begging for money
or food. At least the guards moved the refugees off the road when we approached.
We parked at a secured lot - the sign called it a "caravanserai",
whatever the Hell that is - and told the guards who we were. They promised
to keep the refugees from stealing anything. At
one end of the Market we saw a tavern with a sign that said "No Non-Humans".
Olivia asked one of the two guards out front, "Since when does the
Kingdom of the Outlands practice discrimination?" He shrugged and
said, "Private property. There's an Elf place up the street".
We kept going, seeing more and more beggars and vagrants. Then
we got to a gate that hadn't been there last time we were in Cortez. The
guards waved us thru and shut the gates behind us. Michael asked, "What's
with the gate? Since when are people not allowed into a city of the Kingdom?"
They explained that it has become kind of a DMZ, and most of the people
outside are the refugees who were denied access to the Kingdom. Thinking
about how dirty and hungry they looked, I felt a twinge of guilt, but
then I remembered some of the things Morag and I got out of some of them,
using our truth spells. Well, if they ever get their act together, they
can reapply for entry into the Kingdom. If they turn out to be worthy,
so be it, and if not, Karma's a bitch, ain't it? Anyway,
we decided to stop for lunch, and paid a group of street kids some chocolate
to help the guards watch the vehicles. Dallas and Carson decided to check
out the Humans-only place. Michael, Vesta, Alfred, Olivia and myself wanted
to find the Elf tavern and Connors and O'Bannon opted to look for someplace
else. We found a storefront with a sign in Elvish that read "House
of the People". And when we entered it was like another world. There
was no sound at all from the outside and it was cool, almost misty. I
felt all my stress and strains just vanish as we passed thru the foyer.
A Silver Elf met us and showed us to our seats in a moss-covered grotto.
There were vines and small waterfalls everywhere. In one corner there
was a Drow woman playing a harp and singing. Olivia was really quite taken
with her, and I could see why. She was stunning. Olivia asked our waitress
to take to her a tip of some chocolate and a request for a song. The waitress
came back and told her "Midnight Rose thanks you for your generosity". The
food came and it was exquisite, both beautiful and delicious. While we
were eating, a couple of elves came in, and they had a Human with them.
Some of the Elves regarded him with hostility but most just ignored him.
The strange thing was, there was an actual disturbance in the aura of
the place. We finished our lunches and headed to the vehicles, meeting
Dallas and Carson on the way. The seemed quite pleased with the Humans-only
place, "Gonna' have to come back" Carson said. We
found Connors and O'Bannon waiting for us so we hit the road. Got to Page,
AZ just before nightfall and since it's part of the SDN we decided to
camp here for the night. It was pretty deserted, but we did see a couple
of older ladies selling frybread and tacos, and an Elder being escorted
by some kids. When they saw the Scooby-Van they knew who we are, and started
asking us to tell them stories of our 'adventures'. We promised that we
would as soon as we got settled for the night. They pointed us towards
an old roadside hotel, and told us the water truck would be by soon.
So we parked the vehicles
and got ourselves situated. An old highway department tanker came by and
gave everyone a couple gallons of water, each. Then we went and got some
frybread from the two women. We gave them more than it was worth, since
we're pretty sure they don't see many luxury items out here. The kids
and the Elder waited until we had finished eating before coming over.
They wanted to hear the story of how we took Sanctum Levi. "Don't
you mean you want to hear the story of how we took Sanctum Levi, with
the valiant help of the brave SDN fighters?" I asked them. They smiled
and laughed, and the Elder said, "Sure, tell us that one too!"
As the story spun itself out, we noticed the two old women had come in
closer, so we made room for them around the fire. As we got to the end
of the story, one of the kids asked, "Is it true that the horse-woman,
Stephanie, killed a hundred NDR fighters all by herself?" Vesta almost
started crying, but said, "That's true, she did. At least a hundred."
Michael took her hand and Olivia and I went on with the story. They asked
quite a few more questions about Stephanie before we finished. She would
be amazed by how her legend has grown! Then
the Elder asked if the stories about how Coyote had helped the Kingdom
were true. So we told that story, too. One of the old women elbowed the
other, and said something in Navajo. They all laughed! Alfred whispered
a translation in Drow to Olivia. She laughed, too. Then she leaned to
me and told me in Elvish. That dirty ol' woman! She'd said, "No wonder
Coyote likes them so much…look at those knockers!" But after
having dealt with Coyote, I laughed too. It was late then and we split the night into watches. I have third watch with Dallas. It's pretty quiet out here; Dallas and I are pretty much just staring at each other. 04-23-06 The
old women gave us fresh bacon and corncakes for breakfast and we hit the
road. From there on we found lots of bad roads. Blown out bridges, bombed
out roads, wrecked military vehicles and lots of wrecked civilian vehicles
- some of them had patchwork armor on them, for all the good it did. We
spent a lot of time going around one mess or another. We
got to Washington, UT and found a blockade manned by a gang of especially
motley men. Lots of visible handguns. There was a hand-painted sign that
read, "Toll Booth". We slowed to a stop and a filthy, dirty,
smelly guy wearing an old tuxedo tailcoat and a top hat walked over to
the driver's side window of the Scooby-Van and greeted us quite politely.
"In the name of General Morgan we welcome you to Morganville. The
toll is 1 carton of cigarettes per vehicle." "Or a case of condoms!"
someone on the barricade yelled. Top
Hat paused for a moment, looked at Olivia, then at me and then at Vesta
in the flatbed. He looked back at the guys on the barricade and said,
"But you know, some of these men are awfully lonely. Maybe we could
work out another arrangement." I wanted to lean out the window and
rip his spleen out, but Olivia (for once) was the calm one. "We are
not going to have sex with any of you." She said. "And we are
not going to pay some stupid ass toll. You're going to move aside and
let us pass or this place is going to be called 'Used to be Morganville'."
Top Hat seemed rather taken aback by her response! He mumbled something
about taking our 'offer' to the General and scurried away. As he got out
of range four groups of men popped up - two on each side of the road.
They had taken some forklifts, reinforced them with steel, and covered
them with camouflage to make machine gun nests. Olivia
sent a fireball at one and took out the crew. Connors and Dallas started
firing from the transport, killing at least three. Michael let loose with
his BFG and took out both nests on his side of the road. Alfred got to
the machine gun on the Scooby-Van and strafed both of the nests on his
side. I could see the men on the barricade getting ready to open fire,
so I asked Corellon to send me enough Power to call down a Fire Strike.
It hit the barricade and all eleven of the men who'd been visible on the
barricade were gone. Five appeared from behind the barricade and took
off running towards town. Vesta opened fire and dropped three, while Carson
and O'Bannon each got one. Two more appeared from somewhere and made a
break for it. Olivia shot at them with her Zapper, but missed and only
singed them. As we all pulled weapons and aimed at them, Connors called
out "Let 'em go! Who else will spread the story?" We
all got out to do some searching while Connors and her men stood watch.
Olivia found a can of spray paint, climbed up to the sign and changed
it to read "Used to be Morganville". Michael found some chocolates
and a bunch of MRE's. I found a solar powered battery charger hooked up
to a men's shaver and a bag of toiletries. At least one of the guys on
the barricade had tried to keep himself clean. Olivia found a tunnel leading
further under the barricade. It was only about 20 feet long, but it lead
to a good-sized culvert that they had taken some care to keep covered
and dry. They had a pretty good stash. We found stacks of cases containing
MRE's and a box full of miscellaneous exotic ammunition. There was also
a cartridge of something that made Michael real excited, some kind of
needles for his gauss rifle.
There was also a goodly amount of gold and jewelry. In one corner there
was a bunk that looked significantly different from the rest…it was
clean. It had White House guest linens and underneath it we found boxes
of books; all of them rare, first editions, or collectibles. There was
another box, this one well padded, and inside were original copies of
the Constitution and Declaration of Independence! They had been taken
from the Smithsonian and were still in their airtight inert-gas preservation
cases. We found another, smaller box, a velvet presentation box. It had
the guy's medals and commendations. This guy had been a highly decorated
soldier who'd fought in the Gulf War. How the Hell did he get HERE? His
ID was in the box, too. It was a White House Security pass; he'd been
one of Jesse's Marine Honor Guards. We
had just started to head back to the surface when Carson stuck his head
down the tunnel to let us know they'd spotted something. We got up and
out in time for Dallas to point out three guys trying to ninja their way
up the street towards us. They weren't very good. Olivia fireballed one.
Michael shot the second with his BFG - THRU the car he was hiding behind!
- and as the last turned to run, I threw a Hold compulsion on him so we
could question him. While Olivia, Connors and I went to question him,
Michael and O'Bannon set to scavenging all the fuel they could find for
our vehicles. Our
prisoner told us that General Morgan is in his 'command post', "But
under the Geneva Conventions you can't…" I pointed to what was
left of the guy that Michael had split open like a rotten tomato and asked
him, "Do you see that guy? Do you see what's left of that guy? We
could have done that to you. All we want is a few answers" "They're
at the Motel 6, all they have are small weapons" That was a little
too easy, so I set up a Zone of Truth and asked him again. They were at
the Motel 6; they were only armed with handguns, true. But the whole place
is booby-trapped. I called over Michael, Vesta and Dallas and asked him
to tell us where the traps were. He told us and they took notes, but he
finished by saying. "That's all I know of, but there's more". So,
with our new buddy in tow, we started towards the Motel 6. I did my spell
to detect traps on the way and found several that he didn't know about.
Some of them were really nasty. We were about ¾ of a block from
the motel when our prisoner's head vaporized. We all ran for cover and
Olivia sent a fireball at the window the shot had come from (it was the
only one on that side of the building that wasn't boarded up). There was
a huge explosion! Fire, flames, screaming and the front half of the building
fell into the street. We could see what had to be General Morgan cowering
in a doorway in the remains of the building. Michael took careful aim
with his BFG and nailed him. Killed him really most completely and impressively
dead. When our hearing returned (more or less) we could hear voices inside
the wreckage calling out "Don't shoot" and "Help us". We
moved in and found three teenaged Hispanic girls hiding in the kitchen.
Olivia scared the crap out of them (unintentionally) and one ran out the
back, screaming in Spanish about the "La Diabla Negra". Another
one just fainted dead away. The last one just sat there, refusing to look
at any of us, holding her rosary and reciting Hail Mary's. To keep her
from getting hysterical like the other two, Olivia did something and she
slumped over, unconscious. I glared at her and she told me she didn't
hurt her; she just put her to sleep for a while. We did a quick search
of the area, found the remains of a guard on the back staircase, and the
body of a girl who'd been chained to a 'throne'. It was obvious that she'd
been a junkie, so I said a Blessing over her, hoping that she could now
find peace. We
found a room that had a bunch of really nice mink coats in it and some
really tacky jewelry that looked like it'd been made with genuine stones
so we took it. Connors and I were in the kitchen when the two girls came
to. Getting a closer look at them they couldn't have been more than 15.
Connors tried to tell them that we wouldn't hurt them and that Olivia
was not the Devil, she was here to rescue them. They looked less than
convinced but opened up enough to tell Connors that they'd been 'picked
up' by the General and his men in Flagstaff. They'd been told that they
would be fed, protected and not raped if they would give their favors
willingly. Connors asked them if they wanted to come with us. They looked
at the men in the group and said, "We don't mind playing with these
men. They are much cleaner than the General's men" We
were appalled! Since Connors' Spanish obviously wasn't up to this, I cast
some Magic that would allow us all to understand each other, and we were
finally able to convince the poor things that if they came with us, these
men (and Olivia) would protect them and never touch them. But if they
didn't want to go we would not make them. I asked them if they knew where
the third gal might have gone. They told me that there was on old church
on the outskirts of town where they would go to get away from the General
and his men. Before I went to look for her, I threw some more Magic on
them to calm them down and prevent more hysterics. Connors
went with me and we found the church right off. We could hear the girl;
she was hiding in the confessional, weeping and praying to Jesus that
the Black Devil would take her quickly. I placed some more Calming on
her before I opened the door of the confessional. She fought it, but it
finally worked (sort of). She came out and fell to her knees in front
of me and started praying to me. She thought I was the Madonna! When Connors
finally stopped laughing, she tried to get the girl to stand. But she
would have none of that. Connors said to me, "Why don't you just
tell her to rise and follow you? We can sort out the details later."
So, with GREAT reluctance I told the poor thing to rise and follow. She
followed Connors and I around while we checked out the church. It had
been thoroughly desecrated and even before we entered the baptismal chapel,
I already knew what we'd find. The priest had been murdered and crucified
on the wall, upside down. I was crying so badly that Connors and the girl
had to help me get him down. We found a place in the graveyard to the
west of the church where we dug a quick grave and buried the man. As I
said the Old Catholic prayers over him, the girl seemed to calm. Then
I Blessed him in the name of Corellon also.
Before we left, I went back inside and asked Corellon for His permission
to re-consecrate the church. He approved and as I did so, we could feel
the Evil lift from the area. We got back to the motel and Michael and
Vesta reported that they'd found some more residents of the town, but
all were harmless and were glad to see the end of the General and his
men. Olivia, Dallas and Vesta were in tears, they laughed so hard when
Connors told them about my little 'misunderstanding' with the third girl. It
was getting late now, and we could see some headlights off in the distance,
moving our way. They signaled us, using their headlights to send Morse
code, and asked us to identify ourselves. Connors had Carson use the headlights
of the Scooby-Van to ID ourselves as the Kingdom of the Outlands. They
signaled back "How many babes you got with you?" "Babes?"
we all yelled. "Four plus some strays" Carson sent back, grinning.
"Good answer. We're coming in", they signaled. It
was Lucky Duck Trading, the group we'd seen yesterday in Cortez. They
told us that they were headed to Vegas for the auction, too. They warned
us about the road from here on in to Vegas. Apparently there are some
nasty biker gangs and other fun surprises along the way. They said they
usually go at night so they can use their heat scopes. We thanked them
for the warning and Connors suggested we go together, safety in numbers.
Besides, with all these Elven eyes, we should be of some assistance. Since
there was some time before full dark we decided to spend some more time
searching to see what other goodies the General might have been hiding.
I searched what was left of his body and found an electronic passcard
with a radiation symbol on it. Michael found a steel plate with a padlock
on it hidden in the floor under a large table in the lobby. He cut the
bolts, opened the door and found some stairs; I tried to detect traps,
and found none. Down the stairs and thru another door we found drugs -
lots and lots and lots of drugs. Electronic gear, shelves of porn DVDs,
a Geiger counter, a crate of china that had come from the China Room in
the White House, and some more furs. We were taking inventory of the drugs
and packing them up, when much to our surprise the pile of furs on the
sofa started to move! It
wasn't a pile of furs; it was a woman wearing one really big fur. And
she was STONED!!!!! "Hey! That's Tiffani Minxx!" O'Bannon and
Dallas said at virtually the same time. "Who?" They pulled out
some of the porn DVDs and showed us the covers. It seemed that almost
all of them featured "Tiffani Minxx". The traders said, "We'll
take her" I was about to object when she started to talk. By the
time the second sentence had left her mouth, I had no problems with them
taking her. We
got her and everything that was salvageable upstairs. Michael came over
to me and nodded towards Tiffani "Isn't there something you can do
for her?" I felt bad that it had to be asked of me. I conjured something
to neutralize the drugs in her system. It seemed to work, so then I drew
upon some more Magic to cure her of her dependence. There was this crazed
look in her eyes and she jerked away from me. Before anyone could stop
her she pulled something out the pocket of her fur and swallowed it. She
looked at the guys in the trading group and said. "I'll do anything
that any of you want me to do, just don't let me come down again. Ever."
She turned and glared at me, "I'll kill myself if I ever come down
again." She climbed into the trader's truck and curled back up into
her coat. I was stunned. We
stashed the rest of the goods and with the Elves driving, we pulled out
behind the traders' convoy. The night was quiet until we were a little
past Glendale, NV. We spotted some signal fires and Connors could see
some motorcycles (regular one, not the Turbobikes) warming up through
her night-vision goggles. We passed the word amongst our group and were
just about to warn the traders when they radioed us. They'd seen them,
too. Olivia
set a fireball off up in the air between us as a warning and Michael got
off a couple shots from his BFG, but didn't hit anything. Who or whatever
was out there started to form up into a barricade a ways down the road.
Michael fired off a few more rounds while Olivia let go with another warning
fireball. Alfred programmed the grenade launcher in the Scooby-Van and
fired five at the area they were all grouped in. I don't know if they
saw them and started moving towards us or if they just lucked out and
chose that moment to close in, but the grenades exploded behind them and
only five of them got caught in the explosion. Thanks to the backlight
from the explosions, we could see there were at least 18 of 'em. All with
added armor and weaponry. Michael
opened fire with his BFG and one of the bikers went down. I called on
Corellon's strength and called down a flame strike right in the center
of the road, just in front of them. The lead biker tried to make it thru
but his bike exploded. The ones behind him tried to swerve or lay down
their bikes to avoid the flames. The bikes started to plow into each other
and pile up. There were bikes and people flying everywhere, and then gas
tanks started exploding. Olivia looked at me and said, "It is good
to be the Priestess!" Then
one of the bikers that had laid his bike down opened fire with a machine
gun. Some of the bullets got thru the armor on the Scooby-Van and took
out the refrigerator, damn him! Another bike appeared and flew around
the flames. As he got closer Olivia and I could sense that he was about
to cast some kind of Magic. But he screwed up and out of nowhere some
ball lightning appeared and started to chase him. If it weren't such a
bizarre sight, it would have been funny. Michael
took aim at the guy who was shooting up the Scooby-Van and wasted him
with a single shot. Olivia took careful aim and let loose a fireball at
the flying biker. He went with his first reaction (Boy! Was it a bad one!)
and let go of the handlebars to cover his face. He separated from his
bike and fell to the pavement. Then, to add insult to critical injury,
he got hit by his own lightning! We
all got out of our vehicles to take a closer look. It really was the damndest
thing! There was this Mage, lying there, dead from his own stupidity,
with his bike (that had no wheels, by the way) hovering above him. Olivia
'lassoed' it and pulled it down to a level low enough so that she could
reach the ignition. She turned it off and the bike slowly settled to the
ground. She got on, kicked the ignition, and it slowly drifted up. She
rode it in a few circles, then drove it into the back of the Scooby-Van
and turned it off with a big grin. I checked out the guy's jacket - typical
biker leather, with a club name on the back: "The Dead Warlocks".
Olivia decided that she needed it (to go with the bike of course!) and
when she took it off the guy all the 'mess' on it just fell right off.
It had been enchanted, too. We
went to check out their camp; the Traders said they would cover us while
we searched. We found some food, a bunch of ammo for the machine guns
on the bikes (Michael saw to it that all of it was stashed in the Scooby-Van),
a still and a bunch of moonshine. Carson and O'Bannon took charge of that
and added it to Scooby's fuel tank. There was a robot (must of weighed
600 pounds) designed for fighting - lots of spinning saw blades, a chainsaw
on an extending arm, and spikes everywhere. On the worktable next to it
were some flyers announcing a tournament for such things to be held May
1st in Vegas. They promised "prizes of great consequence". Dallas
and Alfred took charge of that, and figured how to get it loaded onto
the flatbed. While they were at it, they took all the tools they could
find. Olivia
and I found the Mage's tent. He had four beads hanging from the roof that
glowed with Magical light. We took 'em. He also had four glass balls that
were pulsing with some kind of Magic. Olivia took one outside and threw
it out into the desert. It erupted in a ball of flame and left a row of
caltrops. The effect lasted for about five minutes. She took the other
three and put them in a well-padded box. We
finished loading everything up and started off again. Not too much further
west, we spotted a lone rider, but he headed the opposite direction. About
1:30 we could see the glow of the Vegas lights over the horizon. Then
all of our car computers flashed on. "Would you like to check your
e-mail?" Why not? Olivia logged in but there was nothing. She asked
me to try, but I couldn't even remember what my password had been. The
traders came over the CB and told us that there was a radio station that
broadcasts out of Vegas if we were interested. We tuned in. It seemed
so weird after all this time to hear the radio. After the song (Video
Killed the Radio Star!) was over, the DJ came on. They've got cameras
set up on the inbound roads and could see us coming. He recognized the
traders (he made a comment about "the Lucky Duck is back in town,
so there's going to be some smiling faces down on Fremont."), but
he thought we were NDR, and asked us to give the station a call and talk
to him. So Olivia called in and set him straight, told him we were from
the Kingdom. When he asked for some kind of verification, I said, "There
was a little incident between King Malcolm and the former Lord of the
Excalibur. An incident involving some Roshambo." He
told us that just recently "Caesar" had approved that story
for public consumption, then he put us on the air and asked us to tell
the whole story. When Olivia finished, he took some calls. The first one
asked Olivia if "she had any 'lady friends' and were they single?"
Olivia asked him "Are you serious? I left my lady friend at home"
"Damn!" he said and hung up. The
next caller asked us for info on how to "take down an Overlord",
but the DJ quickly cut him off saying that threatening the sanctity of
an Overlord's person was a serious crime. The DJ asked us if we were here
to do some trading and we told him we were, indeed. Then he wanted to
know if he could play anything for us. At the same time I said "Highway
to Hell" Olivia said "Hell's Bells" he said, "Okay
I'll spin those just as soon as I'm done playing this one. A special request
for you kids from Caesar. He bids you welcome and asked me to play this
tune just for you." The song started - 'Smugglers Blues'! "And
remember kids, I don't want to see you on TV" - whatever that meant! We
reached the first gate, and it was impressive. Concrete, 200-300 feet
long, guard towers, searchlights, the whole deal. They opened the gate
and advised us to go straight to the Mandalay Bay to get our permits.
It seems that each of us must get a permit to purchase anything. Olivia
must get a permit to practice Magic. She and I must both get permits to
perform any 'feats' in the name of our Gods. And every one of us must
register and license every weapon we want to carry - thank the Gods they
have a bulk rate! They warned us that if any rules are broken, that person
must appear on their nightly version of Thunderdome (I guess they liked
the movie!), so, "Stay off TV". They also gave us a list of
which Overlord covers what. We'd been worried that some of our trade goods
might not be 'legal', so I asked what was acceptable. "Don't sell
or harm children. That's it." So
we made a beeline for the Mandalay. Once there, we followed a sign that
read "Incoming and 1st time buyers" Some valets parked our vehicles
and assured us they would be under the Overlord's protection. According
to our list, the Overlord of the Mandalay Bay is in charge of trade. A
Gold Elf, almost wearing a Versace gown, welcomed us and showed us into
the Trade Office. The manager was really quite efficient and filled us
in on the details. He advised us to take Tiffani to Bellagio and ask for
a finder's fee. We might be able to get a better deal for our gold and
diamonds on the open market down on Fremont. Rio might be interested in
the gold crucifixes and any other religious items we may have. Michael
asked about the gladiatorial arena - how much might he be able to make
there? "It depends on your skills," he was told. Then, for no
other reason except I was exhausted I said, "What will you give us
for a crate of White House china?" "Are you serious?" "Sure.
We got a crate full of the stuff." He told us to take that to Caesar,
apparently he's executive producer of a TV show called 'The Palace' -
his very own take on that old TV show 'The West Wing'. Apparently, he
fancies himself quite the presidential figure. "He'd love to have
those dishes". He
told us that he would take care of our initial permits, but since we'd
been invited by Bellagio, we should get rooms there, and Bellagio might
very well 'comp' us some of our other permits. He sold us a sample price
list so we'd know what our money would be worth. He then gave us $568,500.00
for all the drugs we took from Morganville plus the Rohypnol we had and
a few other items. When we asked about Magic items and the Vancomyacin,
he told us that he really wasn't qualified to quote a firm price for such
items, that we should come back tomorrow. But he gave us a rough price
for the Vancomyacin of $400 - $500, PER TABLET!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We thanked
him and Olivia tipped him with some of the better chocolates we'd taken
from Levi. He told her that if we had anymore of "that sort of item"
it was a sure way to get in good with any chef in town. We
pulled into the Bellagio and got a very warm welcome, they'd been waiting
for us. Once again, the vehicles were parked and we were assured of their
safety. Not even Michael or Vesta had any qualms about leaving them. Olivia
grabbed a bag and stuffed some chocolate and jars of caviar into it. The
concierge welcomed us and told us that the Overlord had made sure that
our suites would be ready and waiting. Olivia sent some of the chocolate
and caviar to the Overlord with our thanks, and some to the chef, with
our compliments. The concierge accepted them and said that she would personally
see them delivered. She asked if we needed weapon permits. She filled
them out for the whole group, for all our weapons. She advised us not
to discharge our weapons on the streets. I said "Wouldn't want to
be on TV, now would we?" She just smiled at me and said, "That
reminds me, in an hour you can see 'The Best of Thunderdome' on channel
13." We were shown to our suites and before we turned in, Connors checked each room for bugs. She couldn't find any. I hit the sack still in my clothes and was out like a light. |