07/22/06:

                We didn't really do much of anything today. We hung around the mall to keep an eye on things - just in case the police or any remnants of Dragon Star came back for retaliation. But it was quiet all day except for all the noise coming from the garage as they worked on Scooby.

07/23/06:

                Olivia spent some time today converting water that I created into alcohol for Scooby's tanks. Afterwards, we made a trip to the market. Olivia bought a bunch of cushy furnishings for Otsune's 'condo' - she loved 'em! I don't think Olivia's ever going to get her out of there.

                I bought 14 nine-round clips for the gun I got at the camp and ammo for everyone else as well. We also bought quite a bit of camping equipment along with extra clothing for everyone. Then we bought a bunch of spare clothing as well, since, as Olivia pointed out, we keep running into naked people.

                In the afternoon, I Sent a message to Caesar warning him that two rather large planes would be showing up on his doorstep tomorrow. "They're ours," I told him, "but we'd consider a deal."

                "We'll work out a fair price for them, later," he responded.

07/24/06:

                After breakfast we moved everyone out to the airport for the flights to Vegas. Olivia gave her letters of recommendation to Brenda and Ebony, and Brenda handed over one of her backpacks. In it was the 350,000 chips that had been agreed upon.

                Brenda said, "As far as I've been able to determine - the bag holds about 40 cubic feet of stuff."

                Olivia pulled Alfred aside and told him that if he wanted to go back to Vegas with Brenda, she would understand. He declined, insisting on staying with Olivia.

                Olias had insisted that Osvanna go to Vegas and the two of them shared a tearful farewell, "I'll see you soon," he told her.

                Once the planes had taken off, we poked around the airport looking for the fuel injector for Scooby but we had no luck.

                Back at the mall, Rodrick tried out the instant camp thingie. It was pretty cool. He made a quick inventory and 'stocked' it with a few items before putting it away. After dinner, he asked me if he could see that gun I had at the market yesterday, the one I got at the merc camp. I showed it to him and he asked, "What would you take in trade for it?"

                "Take it," I told him, and gave him the ammo, too. "I don't use a gun all that often and that one would be lost on me."

07/25/06:

                At breakfast this morning, Rodrick and Leo announced that Scooby was ready to go. So as the rest packed the gear, Olivia and I went to say goodbye to Landau and to thank him for his help.

                By noon we were on hiway 5, headed north.

                We were approaching the town of Orland, when Olivia (back in her spot in the turret) spotted smoke ahead. Alfred slowed us down and suddenly the IFF terminal lit up and identified Juggernauts Issachar and Gad - directly ahead of us.

                The radio kicked on, "Juggernaut Levi?" a woman asked.

                Olivia answered, "Yeah. How's things going?"

                The woman said, "I think it best if we all refrain from any intra-familial hostilities, so how about we meet you two miles south of Orland on the 5?"

                "Sure." Everyone manned a weapon or information display as we moved to meet Scooby's brothers. The closer we got the thicker the smoke got. Finally we saw the two juggernauts. The first person out of either vehicle was a real surprise - a Drow woman wearing full combat armor. She was followed by a bunch of adventurer types of different races. They hauled some prisoners out behind them - Mormons, judging by their clothes.

                Olivia climbed out to greet the Drow, who said, "So you're the ones who hit Levi, huh? I'm Carmelita, nice to meet you."

                "We're with the New Ectopian Defense Force, though we're not officially recognized as such," she said with a big wink. "You surprised us. We were just finishing up here when the IFF ID'd you as an enemy. Our 'guests' told us that Sanctum Levi had fallen into enemy hands some time ago. Are you interested in caravaning up to Portland?"

                Olivia said, "We can only go part of the way with you. We need to make a stop along the way. At Crater Lake."

                "Why?"

                Olivia explained, "We're looking for some one. Do you know Ellen?"

                "Ellen who?"

                I said, "Ellen of Clan Silverwolf. They live near Crater Lake."

                Carmelita said, "You might want to reconsider going there. If you're resourceful enough to win this vehicle, we'd hate to lose you out there."

                Olivia shook her head, "We need to find Ellen, sorry."

                One of the Mormons started yelling, "You're all going to die - horribly!"

                Carmelita regarded him with contempt, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Then turned back to Olivia, "Really, why don't you come to Portland with us?"

                "Because we really need to get to Crater Lake. We've come along way to find someone," I said.

                Olivia asked her, "So what's with the flaming city?"

                "It was an NDR enclave," Carmelita said. "We traced the juggernauts here and decided to teach them a lesson. Shall we get going?"

                So we all loaded up and started north again. Going thru town we could see they had pretty much leveled the place. All the buildings were either destroyed or burning.

                We were closing in on Red Bluff and Rodrick told us it was a trading stop, "But they don't have much." So we decided to keep going. On our way thru the area Rodrick noticed a merc company and pointed them out to us. He told us that their usual MO is to take a contract, kill their employer and steal everything.

                "That sucks," Olivia said.

                "Not very nice," I agreed and we all made note of them and continued.

                Evening was approaching and although the roads weren't bad, they weren't that good, either; besides that, there was a fog rolling in from the west. Carmelita radioed that they were going to stop soon. "There's a safe traders haven ahead." We followed them in and paid to park.

                We found them hauling the Mormons out of the juggernauts again while Carmelita was bargaining with a slave trader for the men - but she sold the two girls (both looked to be 17 or so) to a different man.

                Olivia confronted her; "You're selling them?"

                "Yes. They tried to kill my men and me. Why? Do you have a counter offer?"

                The girls yelled, "We were defending our homes, our families! All we were trying to do was farm our land."

                Olivia looked at me and nodded; they were telling the truth.

                They went on to say that the Deseret forces with juggernauts were the only ones strong enough to get supplies to farms this far west. "We lived in that town, we grew up there and, yes, we're members of the Church."

                Carmelita ordered them to shut up; "Any scratch can start an infection."

                The slave trader renewed his offer of 50 utils for each girl. Olivia offered 100. Carmelita asked the trader for 125. He snorted, "Not even virgins are worth that much. She can have them."

                So Olivia paid Carmelita and we watched the three male survivors taken away. Olivia stopped them and asked how much to purchase them. One thousand utils each.

                The girls confirmed that all three of them were indeed NDR.

                I said, "Don't bother with them Olivia, they wouldn't do anything to help either of us."

                One of the girls asked Olivia, "Are you really a monster or do you just look like one?"

                "Huh?"

                "You'd really let them go just because they would do the same?" she asked.

                So Olivia asked the men, "Would you try to kill me in the night?"

                "That is the Will of God," one man said.

                Another said, "We will accept no aid from the Spawn of Satan." He pointed to the men who'd bought them; "These men can only kill us. But you can endanger our very souls."

                Olivia said to the girl, "There ya go."

                The girl was persistent though, "Their answers were spiritually correct, but you still refuse to help them?"

                Olivia was perplexed; she waved the slave traders away and asked the girls, "What am I going to do with you?"

                "Let us go?" the girl said. "Do the Mormon thing and supply us. Give us the wealth we need."

                Olivia said she was exaggerating but being basically truthful. So we decided that Olivia would take the girls and try to find someplace safe to leave them while I got rooms at the hostel for everyone. We had a choice of one, five or twenty util rooms. "And with the twenty util room, you get your choice from the brothel." When the clerk saw that wasn't doing anything for me, he added, "And a private bath."

                "Okay. Twenty utils rooms all around."

                Leo said, "Jazz, how 'bout you and I stay in Scooby?"

                "Someone should," I agreed. And Walter said he'd do it.

                As I was paying for the rooms I saw Leo and Rodrick having a conversation. "What was all that?" I asked.

                "Boy talk," was all he'd say.

                Olivia and the girls headed to where some caravans were staging and found one that was leaving in the next few days or so for Aquaria. And they had a guy in armor bearing the crest of the Kingdom of An Tir in the SCA. Olivia introduced herself as SCA herself and asked about Aquaria.

                The man told her that it's on one part of Vancouver Island, the other part is called Artemesia or the Woman's Country. Olivia told me that the whole Aquaria group was wearing a really interesting collection of garb - Celtic and Norse styles mixed and combined and almost everyone in the group was wearing some sort of enchanted armor.

                "We're not leaving for another four days," the man said. "Do you still wish to buy passage?"

                Olivia explained she just wanted to find someplace for the girls and asked if he would take them.

                "Sure. They'll like Aquaria, they'll be allowed to be Christian there, same as in the Woman's Country; they don't care either."

                The quiet girl asked, "Will we be safe?"

                The man looked at her and said, "Well, now, New Ectopian law calls for the execution of a convicted rapist. The Aquarian law is a fair trial, followed by torture, followed by execution."

                Olivia said she knew he was being truthful, so she asked him how much.

                "Five utils each."

                "And will they be able to farm there?" Olivia asked.

                "Mighty fine farm lands," he assured them.

                So Olivia paid the man for their passage and gave each girl 100 utils to get them started. She was about to leave when a large armored woman who'd been watching the whole thing interrupted, "You two girls can stay with me, separate from all these men. And then your honor will be protected."

                She explained that she was from Artemesia and Olivia had noticed that she was wearing silksteel armor - really nice silksteel armor. The talkative girl thanked Olivia and said, "May God notice your generosity when you come before His throne."

                The SCA guy asked Olivia where she was headed and Olivia asked him if he knew anything about the Crater Lake area.

                "I know it's inhabited by werewolves. Or were-elves, whatever - they're isolationists."

                Olivia told him that we were looking for a friend from Denver whom we heard was in that area and the guy suggested using a Bronco's flag as a signal.

                "Sure why not?" she thanked him for his assistance and returned to the hostel.

                We all cleaned up (in lukewarm showers - yuck!) and met for dinner. Olivia asked me if I wanted to go talk to the Artemesian woman with her; she wanted to see about buying more silksteel since hers got dirty in the attack on the mall.

                "Sure, let's go," I said.

                "Be back by midnight," Leo said as we stood to leave.

                "What?" I asked.

                "Be back by midnight," he repeated.

                I couldn't believe my ears. "Are you imposing a curfew on me?"

                "No, not at all," he said.

                I wanted to continue that conversation but Olivia had me by the arm and was leading me away. "He's planning something. Trust me, I know that look," she said.

                Oh, all right.

                We found the woman with no trouble; she had an area in the caravan that she had 'separated' from the rest by hanging tarps and blankets. She was teaching the two girls some fundamental sword work. She spotted us and stopped.

                Olivia said, "That's some nice silksteel you've got on, I noticed."

                "You and everyone else." She proceeded to tell Olivia that her silksteel armor had been made all wrong - apparently, the suits are supposed to be tailored to the individual wearing them and then "spun" together somehow.

                "Where did you get yours?" Olivia asked.

                "From the source. The Dugway Proving Grounds, south of Salt Lake City." She explained that she'd been stationed out there evaluating the stuff. Olivia told her that we had purchased a bolt of the stuff and had some bonding liquid but the woman told us that in that form it was only good for armor plates.

                "But you know," she said, "the facility was 50 meters deep; it should be intact. It'll need power of course, for the machines that measure a person and then spin the silksteel into armor."

                "And someone who knows how to use it," I said.

                "Yeah, that, too," she admitted.

                We thanked her for the info and headed back to the hostel.

                If Leo is planning something - he ain't talking.

                I (and everyone else in the area) was jolted awake about 2:00 am by explosions, weapons fire, and yelling outside. I turned on the lights and Leo was gone. I threw on some clothes, grabbed some weapons and joined the crowd outside. Everyone was there except Leo and Rodrick.

                Camped to one side of the hostel was a group of baby mercs (as Rodrick called them) and they were running around like crazy people, yelling something about bugs. Carmelita's people appeared from their juggernauts and apparently the bugs turned on them, because they started running around like maniacs.

                It really was pretty funny to watch.

                When the show got boring everyone returned to bed. About 45 minutes later Leo snuck back into our room wearing a ninja suit and carrying a bag full of something.

                He was pretty pleased with himself and showed me what all he'd gotten out of the storage compartments of Carmelita's vehicles. There was a spare fuel injector and replacements for all the electronics that had been lost in the fire. "They probably don't even know those storage bins are there yet," he said.

                "I like midnight requisitioning," I said. "And all that noise was Rodrick?"

                "Yep. He found a wasps nest and tossed it and a flash-bang right dead center of the baby mercs camp."

                "Oooh. That's mean. But how did you get into the locked compartments?"

                "With this." It was the wand Olivia uses to unlock things!

                About an hour later, someone knocked 'shave and a haircut' on our door.

                "What the Hell?!"

                Leo told me to relax - it was just Rodrick sneaking back in.

07/26/06:

                As we were getting breakfast this morning Olivia confronted Leo about last night, "Why didn't Jazz and I get to play?"

                Leo pointed to Rodrick and said, "He's a SEAL."

                "I'm your sister!"

                "He's a SEAL."

                "You're sleeping with her."

                "He's a SEAL," he insisted.

                We were interrupted at that point by the Artemesian woman. She just walked right up and said, "Leave. Get some food and leave. Get on the road."

                "What?"

                "There are some that would plan vengeance on their captors. You gave them the means."

                Oh shit. Should we warn Carmelita? The group consensus was no.

                Olivia said, "But we need to go to the market."

                "You have no time," the woman insisted.

                Rodrick suggested that since no one really knew that he was with us, that he could stay and get what we needed. We could wait for him further up the road and he'd catch up.

                I said, "We can leave the turbobike for you."

                And so it was agreed. He unloaded the bike and asked what we needed from the market.

                "A Bronco's flag," Olivia said.

                "What?" Rodrick and Leo demanded in unison.

                "We'll explain later - but we need it for a signal."

                "Okay," Rodrick just shrugged and headed towards the market. We loaded up and headed north.

                We got about 20 miles north of town and pulled over to wait. It didn't take long before he showed up. But he had no flag. "I couldn't find one - but I got this instead." It was an Elway jersey. "Will this do?"

                "It should."

                Then he told us that while he was in the market he'd heard explosions coming from near the hostel. An explosion had gutted one juggernaut and the other had the cab section blown completely off. "No one could have survived that. And the shrapnel took out that camp of baby mercs, too. I caught a glimpse of Carmelita standing in the doorway of the hostel looking at all the destruction and she was seriously pissed off."

                Then he'd spent some time asking around to see if anyone had any idea who'd done it; there were two popular theories. One was that an NDR contingent in town had done it and the other was that the vehicles had a self-destruct mode that the prisoners had managed to activate.

                I said, "Man, Carmelita is going to be pissed that we left them."

                Olivia agreed, "But she has no transportation, what's she going to do?"

                So we kept going and got to Medford without incident as it got dark. We found the junction with highway 62 eastbound and followed it until we found a place to stay for the night. We decided to stay there instead of pushing on to Crater Lake so we could approach Silverwolf in full daylight tomorrow.

                There was no real place to 'camp' so we all crammed into Scooby finding any place to sleep. We split the night into watches, but again, had a nice quiet night.

07/27/06:

                Before we hit the road this morning, Alfred climbed up and tied the Elway jersey to Scooby's antenna and we were off. Leo was driving but not having much fun. For long stretches the road was washed out and we spent a lot of time off completely off road trying to avoid old mudslides. We finally passed a sign for Crater Lake and found an open meadow area where we decided to stop and have a nice, visible, non-sneaky picnic lunch.

                Olivia and I had just gotten out when an arrow pinged off of Scooby. We scooted back in and closed the door. Olivia activated the PA and said, "We're looking for Ellen. From Denver. She used to know a guy named Malcolm. We mean no harm to anyone,"

                There was nothing for a few minutes, then another arrow hit and stuck in the ground right outside the door. There was a message attached to this one. Olivia retrieved the arrow and brought it back in to read it. The message was a short one, "Everyone out of the vehicle." So we all got out again.

                A voice yelled, "Okay, that's far enough." We stopped.

                "Why do you want to speak to this person?"

                I said, "She's a friend of a friend. We have a message for her."

                "We're playing matchmaker," Olivia said.

                There was a long pause, "Alright, wait there. Have some lunch, but cast no spells."

                "But we need to, to eat," we protested.

                The voice was getting exasperated, "Oh, okay - but that's all."

                "Thank you!"

                So we created some food for a nice picnic in the sunshine.

                The meadow got quiet. Real quiet, and that's when we saw a woman walking towards us. She was distinctly silverish. When she was close enough she said, "Malcolm sent you?"

                "No. Not really," I said.

                Olivia said, "But we're here for him."

                Ellen looked baffled, "Malcolm. Denver cop?"

                "Yep, was on the SWAT team," I said.

                "Malcolm Stewart?"

                "That's him," Olivia confirmed and we explained to her about the Kingdom and how Malcolm is our king.

                "King Malcolm? No shit?"

                "No shit."

                "So why are you here?" she asked.

                Olivia said, "Because he still loves you."

                "He would never say that."

                "He didn't," I said. "But we have it on good authority."

                She shook her head at that, "I told him that intercourse vests no property rights."

                Olivia and I lost it. We burst out laughing.

                "So we've heard," Olivia finally managed.

                Ellen smiled a little, "He said that to you?"

                I said, "Oh yeah."

                "Then why are you here?" she asked me.

                "Because he is our King. And we are worried about the King. Because he is our friend and we are worried about our friend because he is alone. He needs steady companionship but is afraid to seek it because of the sword."

                "The sword?"

                Olivia said, "Yes. The Kingsword chose him. It judged him worthy and now it seems any woman who looks to be Queen must also face its test."

                "But we're not asking that of you," I said. "We're just here to ask you if you are at all interested in going to Durango to see Malcolm."

                "And what if the sword judges someone unworthy?" Ellen asked.

                "Well, um, they sort of burn to a crisp," Olivia said.

                Ellen said, "And let me guess. When he found out about this, he swore (to himself, anyway) that he'd never ask a woman to face that. Because if anything happened to her the blame would be all his and he's wearing all that guilt ahead of time, like a fucking albatross around his neck?"

                "Wow!" I said, "You really do know him well."

                She was pensive for a moment. "Okay. I'll go with you." She held up a hand to stop us from saying anything, "For the sole purpose of slapping him and telling him to pull his head out of his ass."

                Olivia and I looked at each other and shrugged, "Okay, that works."

                But then Ellen said, "And then I'll tell him that I love him, too."

                She turned and yelled; "It's alight. I'm going with them!"

                So we made introductions all around and Ellen joined us for lunch. She asked us to tell her everything about Malcolm since he left Denver for Arizona, so we did. Then we explained that we were going to Portland first and she told us what she knew about the trip between Crater Lake and Portland.

                We cleaned up after lunch and asked her if it would take her long to get ready to leave.

                "I'm ready now," she said. "But I'm going to have to get some clothes somewhere. I borrowed this dress from a friend."

                So we got out some of the spare clothing we bought and let her pick some stuff. She changed and left the dress on a tree limb, "Let's go," she said.

                As we were working our way back to the road, Olivia said, "This was easier than we thought it would be."

                Ellen gave a little laugh. "That's all because of how you approached us. There were people with RPG's hidden away, waiting to see how you handled the arrows."

                She directed us to take the 138 to the 97 to the 58 which would take us back to the 5.

                It was getting dark and the fog was rolling in again when we came across a campground near Crescent Lake. We decided to stop there. We were setting up the tents when I just couldn't stand it anymore and asked Ellen to Change, "Please? I really want to see that."

                She simply shrugged and suddenly there was a HUGE wolf looking at me. She was at least five feet tall (taller than me!) at the shoulder, had gorgeous metallic silver fur and sapphire blue eyes. She gave me a wink, shook herself real good and was off like a streak!

                Leo asked, "That's your King's girlfriend?"

                "That was so cool," I whispered.

                She was back in about five minutes with a rabbit. She dropped it and took off again. It took longer that time but when she came back she was dragging the carcass of a deer. She set it by the fire and changed back. She said with a grin, "I caught it, you clean it."

                "Yeah Leo," Olivia said, "Clean that."

                Leo set to cleaning it while Rodrick tried his instant campfire charm. He tossed it down and there was a tent with a sleeping bag all ready and a cheery little fire with a pot of coffee boiling. Olivia and I built the fire up to a large bonfire and set some venison to roast.

                After we'd all stuffed ourselves we took watches and hit the sack.

07/28/06:

                As we were having breakfast, Rodrick asked us if there were any chocolates or mints that he could have, so we showed him were we kept that sort of stuff. He took a couple of those little Andes mints and with an evil grin went out to his campsite. He restocked the woodpile and water barrel and then made up his 'bed'. Before he put it all away, he laid the mints on the pillow, "Just in case I have a visitor," he said.

                Back on the road the going was rough again and we had to abandon the road all together at one point due to a washed out bridge. There was a dirt road that followed a river and we saw two men, middle aged and stark naked. Their bodies were covered with Celtic designs painted in woad and one had a huge broadsword strapped to his back. They were out in the river, spear fishing, but stopped to watch in amazement as we passed.

                Ellen said she knew this road, "The pack uses it, just follow the river to Eugene."

                As we were nearing Jasper we saw a New Ectopian security patrol vehicle waiting. There was an officer in uniform with two men dressed all in black and each one had a rocket launcher. The officer held up a hand and Alfred slowed us to a stop.

                The officer walked to the driver's side and said, "Good day. This is a customs stop.."

                Olivia interrupted him to say that our papers were all in order. Boy, that pissed him off!

                "Be quiet! Do you have the talking stick? As I was trying to say, this is a customs stop. Your belongings will be inventoried, you will be interrogated and your doctrinal purity verified."

                Suddenly Ellen was half out of the window and told the man, "No. We won't. Or your 'doctrinal purity' will be tested. By my fangs!" She changed and snarled at the man and he jumped back. Alfred floored it, spraying all three of the men with mud and gravel. Rodrick manned the oil jets - just in case they tried to come after us. Ellen changed back and explained, "That was nothing but a shakedown. You know, a big rig like this one, it must have lots of goodies in it."

                We finally reached Eugene and followed the signs that directed us to proceed to the weigh station prior to entering New Ectopia. What we found was a big, long, slow line of vehicles. Rodrick told us what to expect. "They'll go thru everything and compare what they find to the inventory you listed when you got your papers, anything not listed will be declared contraband and confiscated."

                After I don't know how long, Rodrick spotted a border guard walking the line of vehicles - someone he knew. He yelled to him and waved him over.

                "Hey Rodrick! This your contract?"

                "Yep and we have all our papers ready to go, wanna see 'em?"

                "Sure." So the guy boarded and took a cursory look around and then looked at our papers. He whistled, "This is some pretty heavy hardware you've got."

                "Yeah well, you know, better safe than sorry," Rodrick said.

                "Can I inspect your fuel tanks?"

                "Of course."

                Alfred opened them and the guy took a whiff, "Okay, alcohol."

                We waved over another guard; this one had a dog with him. Rodrick's friend explained that they'd be checking for drugs and if they came across anything other than what we'd listed, we were "in for some big trouble." Fortunately, we listed everything correctly. The guy looked at it all and asked if we were planning to distribute or if it was for personal use.

                We looked at the huge pile of everything and just laughed! "My God, we'd be dead!" Olivia said.

                The guy produced a packet of sealing wax and a signet. He sealed the packages shut and impressed them with the signet, "These will be checked when you leave, if the seals are broken you'll have to pay a tariff." He thanked us for our cooperation and waved us out of line, "Welcome to New Ectopia."

                As we passed the other vehicles still in line there were a lot of glares sent our way. I said to Leo, "This is why we hired him."

                Past the border there were a lot of signs claiming things such as, "Last Catholic Church for so many miles" or "Last Baptist Church for so many more miles". It was too weird. Rodrick directed us towards a nice hotel with reasonable prices. On the way, he asked me what we were looking for in New Ectopia.

                "Well, Walter here is an Ambassador from President Ventura to New Ectopia. Olivia and I are sort of doing the same thing for King Malcolm. But we consider our jobs done now that we've found Ellen."

                Olivia added, "Don't forget we have a letter to deliver in Salem."

                The hotel was a nice one; it had electricity and everything! We paid for our 25 utils per room and Olivia and I asked at the desk and were told that Temple of Crom was several blocks away and the Temple of Corellon was actually closer.

                "And right across the street is the Temple of Isis."

                "It's also a brothel," Rodrick explained. "But why pay for it?"