Reunion in the Bleak Gate
Session 30
After our final talk with Aodhan, we take Flying Spark who used the spare time to get stuffed at the banquet's leftovers and head to the RHC. Auryn takes a small detour to get Asrabey on board and together we meet in our office. There, we tell Asrabey about another person who might accompany us and who might be the perfect guide as he was the one Carlyle saw in his vision of Kasvarina: Alexander Grappa. We then tell him about the Mindmaker's new body and also that we have yet to decide whether we should take him with us.
Margit nods as she gets that now is the time to cast her prepared auguries and divinations. She then shares her results with us: Bringing Grappa means both weal and woe (“Who would've guessed that?” Auryn says) and she can also say that joy, grief, happiness and pain await us in the Bleak Gate. So we decide to take the risk and let Grappa be part of our group. We then venture down to his Workshop and introduce him to Asrabey. Grappa is still eager to come along even if this means danger due to his metal body and Quintal's metalbending.
We already calculated this in our equation and so we don leather armor and present our druidic ironwood weapons. This leaves only one last problem to discuss: Carlyle and the spirits of the Bleak Gate. As it is right now, Carlyle is highly sensitive regarding the spirits of the dead and we all fear that he might lose his sanity should he cross the border to the realm of the dead and be exposed to the constant wailing of the dead. He thinks about this fact for a while and finally says that it cannot be helped, he simply has to take this risk.
However, he hopes that maybe those spirits he personally guided towards the Bleak Gate will protect him from the harsh environment. Auryn then closes her eyes for a long time and finally promises that she'll protect him from the malevolent screams.
So we head to Stanfield Canal and see that a small group of sailors await us with a barge and a specially prepared, large box. We all try to fit into the box and the sailors agree to drive our barge through the canal while we're inside. Auryn then takes Carlyle's hands and starts singing ancient eladrin songs her mother sang to calm her when she was a child. After a while, the sailors learn the melody and they start humming along while we're crossing the bridges to the Bleak Gate.
Despite the song, Carlyle is soon able to hear the dead and their endless screams and after a while they are loud enough that the rest of us can hear them as well. Once we cross the last of the rusty gates, the voices suddenly stop and the sailor's humming disappears as well. We see this as a sign that we arrived at our destination, so we open the box again and find ourselves at the end of the canal in a gray world with little vegetation.
As the barge vanished as well, we use the box to get to the riverbank and leave the “vehicle” one by one. Grinding marks on the ground indicate that this isn't the first box that arrived here, so we guess that this is where the smuggled material ended up.
Grappa points at the single path that leads towards what appears to be the Bleak Gate version of Cauldron Hill. So we take the wand of Slylyx to make our transition permanent and head towards the hill. On our way there, we see that this whole area, including our path, is warded with some kind of giant, violet glowing shield. Grappa finds the intensity of the color rather strange and he says that usually, you should be able to hear the wailing even past the barrier. So he believes that something or someone must have strengthened the barrier. We guess that this might be the physical form of Macbannin's seal and are quite happy regarding our request to the Old Stag.
Grappa then explains that there are two ways into the complex: One direct way, leading through the grand entrance and one secret path, leading through the vent system. As we're all for secrecy, we decide to head towards the vent system and cause as little noise and light as possible while going there.
On our way through the strange, bleaky wilderness we spot some stray shadowy creatures here and there. We remember our first encounter with Leone and suddenly understand where he and Creed might have gotten their reinforcements from. Asrabey musters the creatures at a distance before he deems them too dangerous. Carlyle agrees to his assessments as they seem to be slowly approaching like predators. So the two men toss a die to determine who'll have the honor of eradicating the threat. Turns out that it is Carlyle who has to stain his new weapons first.
After a while, we reach more difficult terrain. As neither Margit nor Grappa are among the best athletes, the rest of the team does their best to help the two ascend. We manage to avoid several patrolling shadow trolls and finally arrive at the vent shafts. Unfortunately, they emit a constant stream of hot fumes, making it nearly impossible for normal people to enter the shafts unharmed.
Grappa cannot really help us out here as he doesn't really know how the vent system is controlled, but there has to be some sort of shutdown mechanism, he guesses. We fear that any kind of manipulation might draw some unwanted attention towards us, so it is time to make a plan that'll get us in there without causing trouble. Fortunately, Margit, Flying Spark and Auryn got all we need to protect ourselves from the heat while making sure that we can see through the smoke unhindered.
So we cast our spells and climb into the shaft. After a short while, we reach a crowd barrier and see a massive fan underneath it. We can see a door leading to a maintenance shaft beneath the barrier, so Carlyle uses a spell to shrink himself and slips through the barrier.
(So we just added chibi-Carlyle to chibi-Hana. And Flying Spark was pretty amused to have finally someone of his size in the team)
Carlyle doesn't need much time to enter the shaft, spot two engineers and knock them out. He then turns out the fan and helps us slip through the barrier. We proceed into the maintenance station and decide to disrobe the engineers so two of us may pass as part of the crew. We also find rusty amulets in their possession and put them on as well. When taking a closer look at their uniforms, we are quite surprised as they appear to be decorated with risuri emblems. So we guess that these people, too, might be misguided Risuri.
We proceed to scout the complex with as much caution and stealth as possible. We soon reach the worker's quarters and find that the “employees” there have little work to do and are pretty much relaxing. Fortunately, this means laxer security levels as well, so we can get around much easier than we anticipated. We also spot guards who appear to be mercenaries (no official risuri soldiers among them) and avoid these guys.
To get more information, we enter one engineer's private room and search his personal chest. We're quite lucky as we find a diary where the engineer describes his work and his thoughts on it in detail. He seems to believe that he's working for a secret government project of Risur and is quite proud that he was chosen to work here. They payment is high as well, he writes, even if there is one higher-up who's quite the creepy guy.
He also mentions a beautiful elf who he describes in detail and who fits the description of Kasvarina (or Auryn, but he does mention black hair at one point). He guesses that this woman might be a high ranking clerk who's involved in planning the project. This reminds us of Ekossigan's words and incites Asrabey even more. The engineer then mentions two strange men who fit the descriptions of Augst and Kell and he asks himself whether these guys even belong here.
So we ask Grappa to lead us to the guest's quarters as we might just find everyone of interest there, be that Augst, Kell, Leone or Kasvarina. We stealthily knock out some more engineers to get more uniforms and amulets. When we find trolls guarding another section of the complex, we put them all to sleep via fey magic and knock them out while they're sleeping.
As we follow the smaller hallways, we suddenly realize that getting these amulets was the right move as we're now entering an area with a higher security level where said amulets are needed to proceed without getting hurt.
(Oh forbiddance, how I missed you!)
This way, we also manage to avoid a giant golem who's patrolling the larger hallways. We find a magical sensor in the next corridor, but Carlyle can cut its vision off with an illusory wall before anyone can see us.
(Carlyle's player surely loves wall spells. And I didn't even know he had that spell, or even know that such a spell exists. It is really niché, as the wall with the illusion is rather small, but it is permanent and perfect for fooling patrols or magical sensors)
We get to the kitchen next and see one drunk cook who's easily fooled by our uniforms. As it is currently lunch time (yeah, they seem to have a different time zone here), we take a peek into the dining hall and spot Augst among the elite mercenaries. He seems to be quite chatty and distracted, but Kell is nowhere to be seen. As Augst isn't our primary target, we decide to let him be and move forward. From the conversations, we also get that this “project” is about to be finished very soon.
When we finally reach the guest quarters, we come across several private rooms and laboratories. We first find the room of a static's specialist, then bioengineering labs and an alchemist's lab. Among these rooms is Grappa's old workshop where we find sketches of several golems. We take the sketches and also find clues that some of these materials might have come from the military academy in Pine Island. We also spot the name Col. Harlock here and there, so it turns out that our initial theory after the attack on Nevard was quite correct, even if we could not find any proof.
(So the space pirate is working for the Obs? Oh noes!)
Just as we leave Grappa's workshop, the soldiers and Augst have finished their lunch and our groups kind of bump into each other. Before they can get cause much ruckus, Auryn captivates them all, except Margit, Asrabey, Carlyle and one troll with her music. So the latter one is knocked out by the others. They then proceed their KO routine and lock them all in one of the guest rooms.
The next room we find turns out to be Grappa's private room. As we open the door, we are quite surprised to see Kasvarina sitting on the Mindmaker's bed, seemingly absent-minded. The whole room is decorated with beautiful elfaivaran tapestries, so someone must have made this the Matriarch's new home.
Before we can greet her, Asrabey shoves us all aside and then kneels before his wife. He seems overly moved to finally see her again, takes her hand and kisses it gently.
“My matriarch! I've found you! After all these centuries, we can finally be reunited.”
To Asrabey's surprise, Kasvarina looks at him in disbelief and surprise. She seems utterly irritated at Asrabey's behavior, then shakes her head before her eyes fall upon Auryn.
“Matriarch? No, you must mistake me for her. Is that you... mother?”
Understandably, all of our jaws drop at once. Auryn then carefully tries to explain that she is not Kasvarina's mother, it is more or less the other way round and yes, she is one of the first matriarchs of Elfaivar. Regarding Asrabey, we tell her that he is her most loyal esteemed husband who did everything he could to find her. We cannot convince Kasvarina though as she is very much certain to be a maiden of 30 years who got captured and brought here by a strange man.
Asrabey is devastated as he begins to understand what Ekossigan meant when he said that Kasvarina wouldn't remember him. Then, a mechanical voice mutters strange words of regret:
“I'm sorry. I only wanted to help her start anew. Like I did with my son. I really didn't wish to turn her into a hapless child”
“You did WHAT?!” Asrabey screams in rage, drawing his blade in an instant and threatens to use it against Grappa. Auryn intervenes and places herself between golem and Eladrin while Kasvarina whimpers in terror. This causes Asrabey to cease his attack and he demands that Grappa explains what he did to his wife and how he can revert it.
Grappa then tries to convince everyone that Kasvarina, while being a proud and impressive woman was so much torn apart by hatred and pain that it hurt seeing her that way. Still, he saw remnants of the woman she had been once, so he only tried to help Kasvarina become the person she was before whatever tragedy happened to her. This way, he wanted to let her see the world with different eyes, and maybe bring back the goodness inside her. So what he did was basically suppress her memories. Then he tried to bring her to her homeland of Elfaivar, but Leone Quintal found out about their disappearance and killed him. Sort of.
Asrabey is still furious, but he seems to understand what Grappa was trying to do. He then says that he's sorry, but he has to leave us right here, right now as Kasvarina needs to return to the Dreaming where he or the Fey may find a cure for her amnesia. Before anyone can react, he pulls out a magical staff, places it on the ground where it sprouts leaves and summons a portal to the Dreaming. Asrabey then asks Kasvarina to come with him, takes her hand and leaves the facility.
“Asrabey, please wait, I can help...”
But Auryn's words don't reach him and the portal closes. She sighs about the impulsivity of her kin, even if she can understand Asrabey's desire to bring Kasvarina to safety. But with Asrabey gone this also means that Grappa is now safe from the dreadnaught's blade. So we ask the Mindmaker about his motives regarding Kasvarina and who he meant when he was talking about “his son”. Grappa repeats that he only wanted to help her and that he sensed that all the tragedies of her life made her so miserable and spiteful that he feared her hatred might consume her fully in time.
“She's a very special woman, you know. Full of determination, a fire within that attracts all those who can see it like moths. Especially people like Leone Quintal. He's been drawn to her since he first met her, a true follower of her cause, even if she never let anybody come close to her emotionally.”
(Uh yeah, Auryn was pretty much upset about Kasvarina's state as well. She didn't know much about her as her relatives didn't talk about their ancestor, but Kasvarina was one of the first Matriarchs, so she had to be among he wisest and most powerful. Someone to look up to. Seeing her pretty much helpless was the last thing she'd wanted.
Also, the similarities are quite striking...)
“I see” says Carlyle, then he takes a short look at Auryn and asks Grappa about this mysterious son of his. Grappa explains that he wiped his memory as well after he figured out what “they” wanted to do with him. He fears that they wanted to control him, even if he had a mind of his own. He calls his son Borne and can only say that he's placed inside the project chamber. Judging from what we've seen in this complex so far, this chamber must be really huge. Grappa then says that they wanted to make Borne indestructible, shielding him against any kind of attack.
Carlyle is a bit shocked at this revelation, so he asks Grappa how on earth somebody would keep Borne from committing horrible crimes against humanity once he was set free. Grappa explains that there would have been a security mechanism, but “someone” decided to remove it. This upsets Carlyle even more (that old guy really does fiddle with things that are far beyond his responsibility), but it can't be helped for now. So we decide to continue our search for Leone, Kell or Borne.
Session 30
After our final talk with Aodhan, we take Flying Spark who used the spare time to get stuffed at the banquet's leftovers and head to the RHC. Auryn takes a small detour to get Asrabey on board and together we meet in our office. There, we tell Asrabey about another person who might accompany us and who might be the perfect guide as he was the one Carlyle saw in his vision of Kasvarina: Alexander Grappa. We then tell him about the Mindmaker's new body and also that we have yet to decide whether we should take him with us.
Margit nods as she gets that now is the time to cast her prepared auguries and divinations. She then shares her results with us: Bringing Grappa means both weal and woe (“Who would've guessed that?” Auryn says) and she can also say that joy, grief, happiness and pain await us in the Bleak Gate. So we decide to take the risk and let Grappa be part of our group. We then venture down to his Workshop and introduce him to Asrabey. Grappa is still eager to come along even if this means danger due to his metal body and Quintal's metalbending.
We already calculated this in our equation and so we don leather armor and present our druidic ironwood weapons. This leaves only one last problem to discuss: Carlyle and the spirits of the Bleak Gate. As it is right now, Carlyle is highly sensitive regarding the spirits of the dead and we all fear that he might lose his sanity should he cross the border to the realm of the dead and be exposed to the constant wailing of the dead. He thinks about this fact for a while and finally says that it cannot be helped, he simply has to take this risk.
However, he hopes that maybe those spirits he personally guided towards the Bleak Gate will protect him from the harsh environment. Auryn then closes her eyes for a long time and finally promises that she'll protect him from the malevolent screams.
So we head to Stanfield Canal and see that a small group of sailors await us with a barge and a specially prepared, large box. We all try to fit into the box and the sailors agree to drive our barge through the canal while we're inside. Auryn then takes Carlyle's hands and starts singing ancient eladrin songs her mother sang to calm her when she was a child. After a while, the sailors learn the melody and they start humming along while we're crossing the bridges to the Bleak Gate.
Despite the song, Carlyle is soon able to hear the dead and their endless screams and after a while they are loud enough that the rest of us can hear them as well. Once we cross the last of the rusty gates, the voices suddenly stop and the sailor's humming disappears as well. We see this as a sign that we arrived at our destination, so we open the box again and find ourselves at the end of the canal in a gray world with little vegetation.
As the barge vanished as well, we use the box to get to the riverbank and leave the “vehicle” one by one. Grinding marks on the ground indicate that this isn't the first box that arrived here, so we guess that this is where the smuggled material ended up.
Grappa points at the single path that leads towards what appears to be the Bleak Gate version of Cauldron Hill. So we take the wand of Slylyx to make our transition permanent and head towards the hill. On our way there, we see that this whole area, including our path, is warded with some kind of giant, violet glowing shield. Grappa finds the intensity of the color rather strange and he says that usually, you should be able to hear the wailing even past the barrier. So he believes that something or someone must have strengthened the barrier. We guess that this might be the physical form of Macbannin's seal and are quite happy regarding our request to the Old Stag.
Grappa then explains that there are two ways into the complex: One direct way, leading through the grand entrance and one secret path, leading through the vent system. As we're all for secrecy, we decide to head towards the vent system and cause as little noise and light as possible while going there.
On our way through the strange, bleaky wilderness we spot some stray shadowy creatures here and there. We remember our first encounter with Leone and suddenly understand where he and Creed might have gotten their reinforcements from. Asrabey musters the creatures at a distance before he deems them too dangerous. Carlyle agrees to his assessments as they seem to be slowly approaching like predators. So the two men toss a die to determine who'll have the honor of eradicating the threat. Turns out that it is Carlyle who has to stain his new weapons first.
After a while, we reach more difficult terrain. As neither Margit nor Grappa are among the best athletes, the rest of the team does their best to help the two ascend. We manage to avoid several patrolling shadow trolls and finally arrive at the vent shafts. Unfortunately, they emit a constant stream of hot fumes, making it nearly impossible for normal people to enter the shafts unharmed.
Grappa cannot really help us out here as he doesn't really know how the vent system is controlled, but there has to be some sort of shutdown mechanism, he guesses. We fear that any kind of manipulation might draw some unwanted attention towards us, so it is time to make a plan that'll get us in there without causing trouble. Fortunately, Margit, Flying Spark and Auryn got all we need to protect ourselves from the heat while making sure that we can see through the smoke unhindered.
So we cast our spells and climb into the shaft. After a short while, we reach a crowd barrier and see a massive fan underneath it. We can see a door leading to a maintenance shaft beneath the barrier, so Carlyle uses a spell to shrink himself and slips through the barrier.
(So we just added chibi-Carlyle to chibi-Hana. And Flying Spark was pretty amused to have finally someone of his size in the team)
Carlyle doesn't need much time to enter the shaft, spot two engineers and knock them out. He then turns out the fan and helps us slip through the barrier. We proceed into the maintenance station and decide to disrobe the engineers so two of us may pass as part of the crew. We also find rusty amulets in their possession and put them on as well. When taking a closer look at their uniforms, we are quite surprised as they appear to be decorated with risuri emblems. So we guess that these people, too, might be misguided Risuri.
We proceed to scout the complex with as much caution and stealth as possible. We soon reach the worker's quarters and find that the “employees” there have little work to do and are pretty much relaxing. Fortunately, this means laxer security levels as well, so we can get around much easier than we anticipated. We also spot guards who appear to be mercenaries (no official risuri soldiers among them) and avoid these guys.
To get more information, we enter one engineer's private room and search his personal chest. We're quite lucky as we find a diary where the engineer describes his work and his thoughts on it in detail. He seems to believe that he's working for a secret government project of Risur and is quite proud that he was chosen to work here. They payment is high as well, he writes, even if there is one higher-up who's quite the creepy guy.
He also mentions a beautiful elf who he describes in detail and who fits the description of Kasvarina (or Auryn, but he does mention black hair at one point). He guesses that this woman might be a high ranking clerk who's involved in planning the project. This reminds us of Ekossigan's words and incites Asrabey even more. The engineer then mentions two strange men who fit the descriptions of Augst and Kell and he asks himself whether these guys even belong here.
So we ask Grappa to lead us to the guest's quarters as we might just find everyone of interest there, be that Augst, Kell, Leone or Kasvarina. We stealthily knock out some more engineers to get more uniforms and amulets. When we find trolls guarding another section of the complex, we put them all to sleep via fey magic and knock them out while they're sleeping.
As we follow the smaller hallways, we suddenly realize that getting these amulets was the right move as we're now entering an area with a higher security level where said amulets are needed to proceed without getting hurt.
(Oh forbiddance, how I missed you!)
This way, we also manage to avoid a giant golem who's patrolling the larger hallways. We find a magical sensor in the next corridor, but Carlyle can cut its vision off with an illusory wall before anyone can see us.
(Carlyle's player surely loves wall spells. And I didn't even know he had that spell, or even know that such a spell exists. It is really niché, as the wall with the illusion is rather small, but it is permanent and perfect for fooling patrols or magical sensors)
We get to the kitchen next and see one drunk cook who's easily fooled by our uniforms. As it is currently lunch time (yeah, they seem to have a different time zone here), we take a peek into the dining hall and spot Augst among the elite mercenaries. He seems to be quite chatty and distracted, but Kell is nowhere to be seen. As Augst isn't our primary target, we decide to let him be and move forward. From the conversations, we also get that this “project” is about to be finished very soon.
When we finally reach the guest quarters, we come across several private rooms and laboratories. We first find the room of a static's specialist, then bioengineering labs and an alchemist's lab. Among these rooms is Grappa's old workshop where we find sketches of several golems. We take the sketches and also find clues that some of these materials might have come from the military academy in Pine Island. We also spot the name Col. Harlock here and there, so it turns out that our initial theory after the attack on Nevard was quite correct, even if we could not find any proof.
(So the space pirate is working for the Obs? Oh noes!)
Just as we leave Grappa's workshop, the soldiers and Augst have finished their lunch and our groups kind of bump into each other. Before they can get cause much ruckus, Auryn captivates them all, except Margit, Asrabey, Carlyle and one troll with her music. So the latter one is knocked out by the others. They then proceed their KO routine and lock them all in one of the guest rooms.
The next room we find turns out to be Grappa's private room. As we open the door, we are quite surprised to see Kasvarina sitting on the Mindmaker's bed, seemingly absent-minded. The whole room is decorated with beautiful elfaivaran tapestries, so someone must have made this the Matriarch's new home.
Before we can greet her, Asrabey shoves us all aside and then kneels before his wife. He seems overly moved to finally see her again, takes her hand and kisses it gently.
“My matriarch! I've found you! After all these centuries, we can finally be reunited.”
To Asrabey's surprise, Kasvarina looks at him in disbelief and surprise. She seems utterly irritated at Asrabey's behavior, then shakes her head before her eyes fall upon Auryn.
“Matriarch? No, you must mistake me for her. Is that you... mother?”
Understandably, all of our jaws drop at once. Auryn then carefully tries to explain that she is not Kasvarina's mother, it is more or less the other way round and yes, she is one of the first matriarchs of Elfaivar. Regarding Asrabey, we tell her that he is her most loyal esteemed husband who did everything he could to find her. We cannot convince Kasvarina though as she is very much certain to be a maiden of 30 years who got captured and brought here by a strange man.
Asrabey is devastated as he begins to understand what Ekossigan meant when he said that Kasvarina wouldn't remember him. Then, a mechanical voice mutters strange words of regret:
“I'm sorry. I only wanted to help her start anew. Like I did with my son. I really didn't wish to turn her into a hapless child”
“You did WHAT?!” Asrabey screams in rage, drawing his blade in an instant and threatens to use it against Grappa. Auryn intervenes and places herself between golem and Eladrin while Kasvarina whimpers in terror. This causes Asrabey to cease his attack and he demands that Grappa explains what he did to his wife and how he can revert it.
Grappa then tries to convince everyone that Kasvarina, while being a proud and impressive woman was so much torn apart by hatred and pain that it hurt seeing her that way. Still, he saw remnants of the woman she had been once, so he only tried to help Kasvarina become the person she was before whatever tragedy happened to her. This way, he wanted to let her see the world with different eyes, and maybe bring back the goodness inside her. So what he did was basically suppress her memories. Then he tried to bring her to her homeland of Elfaivar, but Leone Quintal found out about their disappearance and killed him. Sort of.
Asrabey is still furious, but he seems to understand what Grappa was trying to do. He then says that he's sorry, but he has to leave us right here, right now as Kasvarina needs to return to the Dreaming where he or the Fey may find a cure for her amnesia. Before anyone can react, he pulls out a magical staff, places it on the ground where it sprouts leaves and summons a portal to the Dreaming. Asrabey then asks Kasvarina to come with him, takes her hand and leaves the facility.
“Asrabey, please wait, I can help...”
But Auryn's words don't reach him and the portal closes. She sighs about the impulsivity of her kin, even if she can understand Asrabey's desire to bring Kasvarina to safety. But with Asrabey gone this also means that Grappa is now safe from the dreadnaught's blade. So we ask the Mindmaker about his motives regarding Kasvarina and who he meant when he was talking about “his son”. Grappa repeats that he only wanted to help her and that he sensed that all the tragedies of her life made her so miserable and spiteful that he feared her hatred might consume her fully in time.
“She's a very special woman, you know. Full of determination, a fire within that attracts all those who can see it like moths. Especially people like Leone Quintal. He's been drawn to her since he first met her, a true follower of her cause, even if she never let anybody come close to her emotionally.”
(Uh yeah, Auryn was pretty much upset about Kasvarina's state as well. She didn't know much about her as her relatives didn't talk about their ancestor, but Kasvarina was one of the first Matriarchs, so she had to be among he wisest and most powerful. Someone to look up to. Seeing her pretty much helpless was the last thing she'd wanted.
Also, the similarities are quite striking...)
“I see” says Carlyle, then he takes a short look at Auryn and asks Grappa about this mysterious son of his. Grappa explains that he wiped his memory as well after he figured out what “they” wanted to do with him. He fears that they wanted to control him, even if he had a mind of his own. He calls his son Borne and can only say that he's placed inside the project chamber. Judging from what we've seen in this complex so far, this chamber must be really huge. Grappa then says that they wanted to make Borne indestructible, shielding him against any kind of attack.
Carlyle is a bit shocked at this revelation, so he asks Grappa how on earth somebody would keep Borne from committing horrible crimes against humanity once he was set free. Grappa explains that there would have been a security mechanism, but “someone” decided to remove it. This upsets Carlyle even more (that old guy really does fiddle with things that are far beyond his responsibility), but it can't be helped for now. So we decide to continue our search for Leone, Kell or Borne.
