Freshman, Prepping for Halloween

Altclair is Naomi's campaign, set at the college of Altclair, which is somewhere in Minnesota. Think Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, GURPS Illuminati IOU, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Other source material (that Naomi's not familiar with) might include Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon and most of Charles de Lint. Players are me (Justin Thorne) and Josh (Michael Conoway). Manny (Jim Gaffney) dropped out, and Beth (Diometra) lives in Chicago, and is only an occasional player.

From the Desk of Justin Thorne:

Note to Daniel Case

Daniel --

This is not urgent. Give yourself a three day break before opening the envelope.

-Thorne

1. Sarah was talking about some of your relatives, saying that Fergus and Brian might join the Hunt if Llewelyn was leading it, but that Anactoria might lead it. I have no idea what she's talking about or how she knows any of this.

2. Could you have done what you did for Matt if he'd been dead, not just dying? (1)

3. Sarah's been dropping ominous hints about my biological father, saying that I'll be sorry if I don't find out more. I don't know if she's telling the truth, just trying to play with my mind, or both. What do you think?

[Returned the same day, with a picture of Daniel having a serious headache (2)]

1. Shit.

2. No.

3. How the fuck should I know?

To the Honorable Order of Postal Mages:

This letter is an update on the Halloween situation. It turns out, unsurprisingly, that most, if not all, of my preconceptions were entirely incorrect, and that matters are more complicated than they appear.

The primary complication is Sarah Lacey. She seduced Michael at the cast party for Noises Off and is now queen to his king. She says that it is in her best interest for Michael to be victorious in October, as this will allow her to hold on to her own power. However, she is not planning to work with us, on the grounds that if she cannot hold onto the queenship without help, she is not worthy of it.

The game has changed, after much negotiation. It seems that the Good Folk play two types of games. The first is hunting the prey, which is what happened in May. The second is keep-away. This is the option we've negotiated for. This means that Michael will go voluntarily to the Good Folk, and the rest of us have until dawn to get him back.

Actually, what constitutes winning is more complicated and flexible. Following Daniel's advice, we have negotiated for the playing field to be this world, any time, any place. Our other option would have been to keep it to Altclair, but allow the Good Folk to shift the action to any world's Altclair. That would have been less desirable, as their power in certain other worlds is greater than in this one. (3)

I was not certain of the wisdom of keeping the field so broad, but given the weakness of the Good Folk where creativity is concerned, this works in our favor. Attempting to narrow the range of what they can do forces them to be more creative -- and, from our point of view, more obscure, as they turn to myths with which we are less familiar.

We are dealing, of course, with Halloween myths. Daniel explained that, wherever and whenever we go, it will be Halloween, and that there is only one Halloween. We win by getting Michael back to his home territory, which is defined as Burnham County, where both Altclair and his farm are located, this year, this Halloween, by dawn. Alternatively, if Michael gets there on his own, or if he is out of the possession of the Good Folk by dawn, due to our efforts, his own, or those of some other party, such as Sarah, we win.

If we do not win, the Good Folk keep Michael for seven years of his time, during which, I gather, he will not age physically. Seven years for him will be one week for us. I have the numbers for a couple of psychiatrists who are used to people from the Classics Department who have mental problems related to using the time machine. If you know other people who would be able to help in similarly unusual circumstances, I would appreciate any information I could get.

Daniel will be acting as a guide. He says that there should be precisely seven people searching for Michael. Those will be Matt Denkla, myself, Ken Maravitch, Delilah Morgan, Jennifer Blake (formerly Jennifer Corbet), Craig Clare, and Annmarie Browning. Since Matt and Jennifer are both mages, the power levels are going to be higher than would be prudent, but that is the hand we have. Delilah has a mental link to Michael, which may help, at least for a time. Craig is a musician, and he'll be spending the summer composing whatever he and Daniel have agreed on - he and Damon Kiely produced an interesting effect in last Fall's final performance of Faustus. (4) Jennifer is currently carrying Michael's daughter. Hopefully, the child will have been born before Halloween. Annmarie, I understand, will be corporeal and will be able to go anywhere on Halloween. Having a ghost on our side, particularly one who tends to live underground, is an advantage.

Jennifer and Michael's child, presuming she is born before Halloween, will be at Ash's during the festivities. Iris Monequin will watch over her and Jido. Iris is ruthless enough for the job, and Jido can probably help, if necessary.

Ash will be at Michael's farmhouse, creating a beacon so that Michael can find his way home, if opportunity arises. It occurs to me that this will also work if Michael is with us. My mother will be at a particular grove near the house (5) where there is a scrying pool. Beth Gillespie will be in Matt's room, which is protected against the Good Folk (although, as Jennifer pointed out, he'll need to work on fireproofing it). She'll be protecting Michael's heart for reasons I'll get to further on in this letter. I have no idea what Sarah will be doing or where. Helen will be our resident Sane Person on campus. (6)

In view of the power level question (the more we use, the more they can use), and in view of my vulnerability as a maker, the number of enchanted or otherwise magical items is likely to be kept relatively small. I'm packing the handcuffs, in all likelihood. I'm currently working on a monocle to show me what an enchanted item does, and I'll probably pack that as well. I will also take a couple of my nightmares. My roommate is deceased, so I will bring a waterbottle I made for him, once I re-enchant it, as it was pointed out that I did give it to him when he was alive, and it is the only claim he has on me. In an attempt to ensure that I am not giving it to one of the Good Folk, I will bring cold iron as well. (7)

Naturally, I have not made up my mind about Caliban, my sword. Matt looked at it and said that I put most of my violent side into it. Given the likelihood of running into personal ghosts, it would probably be better not to bring the sword. (8)

There is one other unusual item. While settling the rules breach I committed in May, one of the Good Folk left his mark on my arm. Michael transferred it onto a piece of paper which I'm currently keeping in a cold-iron box. We'll think of some way to use it on Halloween.

There are a number of ghosts we may need to deal with. You already know about the events of last Yule. It may or may not be significant that it was on Halloween two years ago that Jennifer told Michael that she was pregnant with their first child. In addition, Michael's father died recently. And, of course, the rest of us have our own ghosts. I know about some, but not others.

Indeed, Daniel is trying to make sure that all of us are kept in the dark about something. He is the only one who will know in advance what costumes we'll all be wearing. I admit that it's a little bizarre being the stage manager of a director who won't tell you what the props, costumes, sets, and so forth are going to be. (9) But he's warned me that Halloween will be even stranger than Yule was.

We've divided up world mythology as best we can, although, obviously, large areas of the world are going to be left uncovered. Diometra will help me with the Classical Greek and Roman mythology. Delilah's covering as much of Africa as she can. Jennifer, with Ash's help, will cover Christian Europe. (10) Ken's covering South America, and he should probably work with Delilah on the overlap between South America and Africa. Helen's coaching Annmarie in prehistoric mythology. Matt's covering Norse mythology. Michael's covering what he can -- he and I both have a grasp of Celtic mythology -- while Craig's exempt from this because he has to write music.

Michael will be talking to the train called The City of New Orleans to see about arranging transportation for our side. I gather that the Good Folk will either have to ensure that we don't have a language-barrier problem or have to keep the locals off our backs.

In all likelihood, the leader of the opposition will be Anactoria. She can make herself irresistible, among other things, so we may have to drag Michael away against his will. Leaving his heart with Beth will ensure that he doesn't pine away for Anactoria, but it will not make him impervious to her charms.

Llewellyn may be out as well. Daniel says that, while Llewellyn covers a lot of ground, when he's around, one should expect anything. Michael will have to be on his guard for odd tricks and illusions.

Fergus is always one of the hunters. He's the one I had to settle the rules breach with. (We agreed on my giving him two items I made on extended loan. I retain ownership until my death, which he may not do anything to hasten. After that, ownership reverts to him. He already has my invisibility cap which makes whatever is inside it invisible, and I'm going to try to make him a pair of seven league boots, although I warned him that the results might be less than impressive.)

Brian is likely to be there as well. I don't know much about him, but he agreed with Michael that Beth had been "spoiled" as prey when the horses ran over her. Daniel says he'll respect the rules of the game, not having quite as much of a cruel streak as Fergus, who, I gather, is likely to have figured out how the rules do not apply to whatever situation he's brought about and to be quite happy to gloat about this in great detail.

Other than that, I suppose anyone could show up, except the Hunter, who does not chase such petty game. The Good Folk are likely to have costumes which represent their archetypes, just as we are. Since it is not unlikely that one or both sides will engage in hostage taking, I suppose this is one way of figuring out everyone's relative point values. (11)

There's another factor to be reckoned with: Once we find Michael, assuming that we do, we are likely to have the urge to rip him apart and eat his heart. The fact that it will be, symbolically, in Beth's keeping not only will not help, but will make matters worse, as it means that tearing out and eating Michael's physical heart will still leave us unsatisfied. Daniel's working on this problem. I've got one or two ideas, but I'm not at all sure how effective they're likely to be. (12)

That's where matters stand. I'm heading for Ash's so I can help him restore his summer garden, which I wrecked in May. Michael and Sarah will take care of the land. I'll spend part of the next two weeks with my mother and part with Dicey Tillerman. After that, I'll be staying at Michael's farm and re-taking a couple of classes at Altclair.

Sincerely,

Justin

Footnotes

(1) In general, a mage, like Matt, has a normal human life span. However, Matt's been around for over a century. Daniel's been around longer since he's got some connection to the Good Folk, though he claims to be unaware of precisely what it is. Justin asked him if he was somehow contributing to Matt's life span. To his surprise, Daniel actually answered him, I think in the hope that maybe Justin would stop pestering him with questions, at least for a while.

Daniel explained that at one point, Matt had been dying. Daniel called on some strange gods, told them what he wanted, and explained that price was no object. What got worked out is that Matt will live as long as Daniel does and vice versa. This freaked Justin when he heard it, but he was able to keep his mouth shut, for once.

I figured that after finding out that he was partly responsible for the Jerusalem Bombing, Justin would want to find out if some variant of Daniel's trick would work. As I told Naomi, I didn't want it to be possible, since I didn't want to lose the character, but it was the sort of thing Justin would have to try.

(2) Naomi supplied Daniel's response. Daniel explained to Justin that he is not able to wait to open something. Justin has since developed the habit of using Matt as a filter when he doesn't think something is urgent.

(3) This would probably have resulted in a trip through the worlds of several books.

(4) Damon is a composer, but neither Justin nor Daniel were willing to trust him outside of Theater Department business since Sarah seduced him. Sarah is no longer sleeping with him, having dropped him when she made her play to become Michael's queen.

(5) Her house, which is in Ohio, not Minnesota.

(6) Beth is Michael's girlfriend. Helen is Justin's ex-girlfriend, and still his friend. She has that rare quality of common sense that leads her to stay out of the weirdest goings on at Altclair.

(7) The Good Folk have no makers and can drain a maker's creativity by copying any of his items which they own. (When Justin found out about this from Daniel, he said, "I'll freak about this later." He proceeded to do this in Annmarie's company.)

The handcuffs were enchanted by the postal mages to protect whatever they're restraining. The monocle was a qualified success, showing what Justin was able to see anyway. Justin did not realize that he was a sensitive at that point. However, non-sensitives can use the monocle as well. The nightmares are tiny gargoyles. Justin has been doing research on gargoyles in his attempts to help the ones magically immobilized at Altclair.

The roommate Justin is referring to is the second Rashid, the man who pretended to be Justin's original roommate so that the first Rashid could plant the Jerusalem bomb. Both Rashids were presumably killed by the Israelis.

(8) Michael's comment when he first learned what Matt told Justin was that this explained why Justin was so bad at violence. With apparently no regard for consistency, he later told Justin that it hadn't taken long for Justin's violent side to "grow back."

The conversation with Matt was interesting. Justin had accidentally killed his stepfather with Caliban, despite having made it in an attempt to show that he understood and respected his father's military virtues. Matt pointed out that this wasn't significantly different from Justin's usual strategy for dealing with bullies which Justin had explained to him a few minutes ago -- keep communicating, show that you understand their point of view and that it's to their advantage to work with you rather than beat you up -- and that it indicated that Justin had felt threatened.

Justin (feeling thoroughly outmaneuvered): Is this the part where I'm supposed to tell you that you're putting words in my mouth? You're not, of course, but somehow, it seems there should be more to it than that.

Naomi had previously commented that kids tend to like Justin because, while he doesn't treat them like adults, he doesn't patronize them either. I suggested that this was probably how he'd dealt with the local bullies, who most certainly were not adults, but if you patronize them, they can tell, and that's when they pummel you into the ground.

After much thought and consultation with Naomi, I decided that Justin wouldn't want to bring Caliban along, although I wanted him to. Josh suggested that Caliban might just show up on his own, and we decided to go for that.

(9) Actually, Justin isn't stage managing this one. If anyone is, it's Matt. Justin thinks he's stage managing because when he looked at Daniel in dismay and said something like "Oh God, I'm stage managing this, aren't I?", Daniel agreed.

(10) Ash intends to use magic to deposit the knowledge directly into Jennifer's mind. At this point, although Justin is unaware of it, Ash is courting Jennifer.

(11) Actually, the only one who was visible was Anactoria. I don't know if Naomi planned it that way, changed her mind, or forgot what Daniel had told Justin. Hostage taking didn't happen.

(12) Ken asked Justin how far they could trust Daniel, given that he'd have relatives, sort of, and friends, more or less, on the other side. Justin knew better than to ask this question outright, but he asked Matt if Daniel would be okay if they had to hurt some of his people. Matt explained that while this might bother Daniel later, during the Hunt, he'd be caught up in his role as guide. Justin's comment to Ken was something like, "So he won't turn on us because of divided loyalties, but he might turn on us because it's dramatically appropriate." Ken muttered something about not understanding Theater majors. Justin maintained that Ken had demonstrated enough understanding of how theater works in the May Hunt. After all, he hadn't done something nominally sane like call the police.