Nomadic:Sessions:20060617

[Note: There was no game session on June 3rd.]

It is Tuesday, April 20, 1993, around 3:00pm. Max is with Stephanie and Gilbert and their captives (two local skinheads and an outworlder) at a Neo-Nazi headquarters in a strip mall. Vincente and Valerie have just teleported back to the office of Dr. Gil Davis, dean of the philosophy department at Illinois State University, having taken the Delaware quarter from student Kendera Jones. Also in the office are JT, Professor Madeline Foley (who has admitted to belonging to a Cabal ‘lodge’), and a graduate student named Joe Powell (who has confessed to assisting Rhodes). Sevren is at the student union, waiting for Herman Volt to show up.

Max checks the computers and finds a mostly-completed email announcing a meeting tonight at this location with a featured speaker. There are about 75 names on the distribution list, three-fourths of which are students. Earlier today someone had been browsing government and other websites as if trying to get an idea of what kind of technology, particularly weaponry, is available. Various emails had been exchanged with universities in Chicago and Los Angeles (including, at the latter, a faculty member named Durr).

Sevren starts chatting up students, slipping in leading questions about Nazi sympathies to see what kind of responses he gets. Someone calls Luther Raab a ‘slimeball’ and says he’s often in the Student Union with Herman Volt, talking loudly pro-Nazi. “I don’t know if they really believe that stuff or if they’re just trying to cause a fight.” Sevren’s drawn a number of students into the discussion by the time Raab and Volt walk in. Sevren waves them over. “Good to see you again, guys. I was just talking with my new friends here about some of the things we discussed earlier.” Luther: “Ah. Have they seen the light?” Sevren: “Oh, they have a different opinion from some of the circles we run with, but I thought it would be nice to have a discussion to talk about the finer points of our theories.” About half the students seem shocked that Sevren has placed himself squarely in the neo-Nazi camp, and a number of them get up and leave. The ensuing discussion quickly grows heated, and Sevren learns a great deal about this world’s political and cultural situation. Herman basks in the attention he’s getting, but Luther seems apprehensive.

Foley’s husband Albert, the ex-military man, works as a security guard at Diamond Star Motors in Normal, but today is his day off. No doubt he’s assembling his security team for tonight’s meeting. Vincente asks her to call and get an update on his progress “without telling him you’re in trouble and me having to hurt you really badly.” She explains that Albert will get suspicious if she pages him and gives Davis’s phone number for the callback. Leaving Davis asleep at his desk, the others adjourn to Foley’s office. Vincente toys with a Sunbolt during the five minutes before Foley’s phone rings. She asks the questions as she was instructed to do. Foley sounds a bit stilted, and apparently her husband asks about this because she says “Oh, I’m just getting nervous about the big meeting.” After she hangs up she reports that Albert has lined up three of his friends to help him with security, and he’s headed for a diner to meet with Loopy Mendez, a demolitions expert. He’d said they’d “lucked out” in that some of his friends still possess military-grade hardware.

Foley takes a deep breath. “What are your intentions? If I get him to give you our other quarter, are we out of it?” Vincente: “Then we’ll leave you alone.” JT: “No, you’re not going to get ‘out of it.’” Foley: “No, I’ve still got to deal with the visiting…” JT: “And the only reason he’s coming here is to get one or both of your quarters.” Foley: “I was talking about the ones I’d called in.” JT: “Rhodes is the one you’ve got to worry about.” Vincente: “We might have to come save you from Rhodes. Even though you don’t qualify as innocent, we wouldn’t want you unnecessarily killed.” Foley, fatalistically: “In other words, since I’ve already set myself up as bait, you don’t see any reason not to use it.” Vincente: “Live bait’s better than dead bait.” Foley: “Whatever happens, we still have the artifact out there in the middle of campus. That makes this area of great interest to my group.” JT: “It makes it a great danger to your group.” Foley: “I will concede that such opportunities have an element of danger.”

Vincente asks to see a picture of Albert Foley. Madeline glances at her purse, and Vincente picks it up and starts pawing through it. JT asks, “What did you want to get out of your purse? Because the picture’s there,” and he indicates a framed photo on her desk. Foley: “I… thought you might want a more recent picture. That one’s several years old.”

Vincente pulls out a small canister with a crystal imbedded in one end. “What’s this?” he asks, pointing it toward her face. “Breath spray?” “Ahhh… no.” Foley tries to claim it’s for self-protection, but she’s fidgety. JT: “It doesn’t look like Mace. It looks like something you might spray at a mage.” Vincente says to Foley, “You’ve got until the count of five to tell us, or I’m going to spray you.” Foley sinks back in her chair. “It will immobilize a mage and block their abilities for fifteen minutes.” “Does it really work?” Foley cuts her eyes between Vincente and Valerie. “Well, one of you is a mage.” JT: “I say we spray it on the kid in the corner.” Joe’s eyes widen. Vincente: “Sounds like a good idea, just to see if it’ll work.” Foley: “Oh, it’ll work.” JT: “Who says that? If I spray it on him, and he gets it full in the face, it’s not going to take away his powers forever, is it?” Foley: “That’s very rare. Maybe one in a thousand cases.” Joe cries out, “Wait! You don’t want to do that! What if she’s wrong? What if she’s lying to you?” JT: “She’s more important than you.” Vincente: “If she’s wrong, then we’re going to spray her.” Joe continues to protest, adding “I’ll do whatever you want.” JT: “You don’t even know how to do this, do you?” Vincente: “We should probably kill you so you can’t reproduce.” Valerie: “You don’t have to kill him to keep him from reproducing, you know. We have a real doctor.” JT: “That’s true. And I operate on corpses all the time.” Vincente: “Killing him would be quicker.” JT: “But a lot less effective.”

Vincente asks Foley where she obtained the spray, and she says vaguely that “you can buy them… with the right connections.” There are no markings or writings on the canister. She adds reluctantly that it’s a prohibited substance. JT: “Prohibited? By whom? The magic police?” Foley: “My archmage. The head of our group.” Vincente: “Is he invited to the meeting tonight, too?” Foley: “No. I’m trying to take advantage of the artifact to improve my situation.” Valerie: “Oh, he’s the one she’s trying to go one up on.” JT: “So you actually have someone who’s an archmage, who could help you deal with Mr. Rhodes, and you’re not going to use him?” Foley: “I didn’t think I needed to. I thought I had the situation well in hand.” Valerie: “The archmage has ethics, and she has philosophy. Her philosophy clashes with his ethics, so she’s trying to dispose of him.”

JT holds the sprayer in front of Joe. “You’ve got one more chance to be more important than her. Do you know who the archmage is and how to contact him?” “No,” Joe admits in a low voice, “I haven’t been cleared that far up in the organization yet.” [Sevren: “It’s a secret society.” Valerie: “From its own members.”] JT to Foley: “Do you have to spray this so they’ll breathe it, or just get it on them?” Foley: “It’s like Mace. Full in the face works best. Its advantage is that most mages don’t know it exists.” The substance cuts a mage off from mana.

Around 4:00pm Max calls over the headsets for a computer expert. “Do we have one?” Valerie jokes, and Rick smiles. Max explains he’s got two locals and a ‘transplant,’ a couple of computers, and a list of 75 names of neo-Nazi sympathizers, and gives Rick directions to the strip center. Among the first few names on the email list are Volt and Raab. As Max reads off some of the names, Sevren notices that one of them is Kyle Denny, the student who was arguing most vehemently against the Nazis at his impromptu colloquium just now. Vincente and Rick step out of the office, Vincente teleports them outside, and Max picks them up in one of the trucks.

Sevren disperses the rest of the students and takes Herman and Luther aside. “Have you guys heard about the meeting tonight?” No, they haven’t (because the email notices haven’t yet been sent). They’re surprised when Sevren mentions that Kyle Denny is on the list (“He’s never been to a meeting before”), then they demand to know how Sevren knows about the list in the first place (“Are you from the national group, or the New York group?”) “I’m a little bit higher up than that,” Sevren replies suavely. Luther has to go to class; Sevren asks Herman to help him run some errands, starting with picking up refreshments for the meeting. “I don’t currently have a US driver’s license,” Sevren remarks, “which makes it awkward for me to try to buy liquor.”

Stephanie lets them in, and Rick heads straight for the computers. Max asks him to find out what he can about what the neo-Nazis have been doing and where they’ve been. Vincente notes the unconscious men and the cattle prod lying on a table, and remarks “I see you’ve made good use of this.”

JT, fingering the canister, addresses Foley. “So what exactly were you going to do? You were going to spray him to keep him from doing his mage thing, then your husband and his bully boys were going to come out with their guns and shoot him?” “That was one of the possibilities.” “When he sent in a projection and you sprayed it and it went through it, then what were you going to do?” “I should have been able to tell if he sent a projection. I do have some skills. They’re not as advanced as I’d like…” “You were going to take time to check out everything before the attack?” “There are procedures. You can preset certain spells to do certain things.” “You don’t have time for those preparations.” “I’d thought I would.”

“So mostly you still work in ritual magics.” “Mostly. You’ve got to understand, most of the world does not have this level of mana.” “Oh, I understand. I just don’t understand why you thought you’d be able to take on a full battle mage with your ritual magics.” “Until you informed me, I was not aware he was a battle mage.” “You thought he was just some bozo?” “I thought he was an archmage of some sort. There was no indication that he was…” “…not from around here?” “There are a lot of things going on, as you know. Or do you know?” “Oh, yeah, the Nazis. They’ve got a big bag of these quarters.” “It’s all tied to the artifact.” “You seem to keep focusing on the fact that the ‘artifact’ is in the middle of your campus, and I don’t think you really understand that you’re just a minor waypoint in a little backwards place, compared to a world where this archmage – whatever his name really is – isn’t even one of the better mages there.” “As minor as we are, we are the ones that received this artifact.”

Valerie remarks casually to JT, “I don’t even know what she means by that phrase, ‘increase her position.’” “In the Cabal,” JT amplifies. “Why bother with the Cabal?” “Because that’s all she knows. She’s from this little Podunk place where…” “Oh, that’s right. She thinks you have to have other mages.” “They have to all band together in order to do anything.” “I see. I guess in some ways it’s a good thing to be so… provincial.”

The casual tone of this side conversation seems to hit Foley harder than the direct approach did, so JT presses onward. “How do you think we can still manipulate this meeting she has planned, to do something about Mr. Rhodes?” Valerie replies, “Oh, I have some ideas about that.” “She thinks we’re still using her as bait.” “I think Rhodes will show up anyway. I also don’t think it’s wise to give away all my plans. You know all the things we discussed earlier, I think they still hold true.” “The one thing I’m wondering about, though – she’s not even good bait anymore. But her husband is. Because if there are no free coins lying around, there’s no point in Rhodes even showing up. He’ll just move on to the next place.” “Well, there *will* be coins there.” “I said *free* coins. She’s not taking ours from us, and I think he knows that. These folks, however… like you said, they’re quite provincial. And if he thinks his friends with their purloined military ordnance have even a chance of stopping Rhodes…” “Well, they’ve never seen real magic before.”

Vincente teleports back to the university, having been gone about fifteen minutes. Foley speaks up, saying she thinks she can convince her husband to give her his coin, which she will turn over to the group in exchange for letting her “back out of this game.” JT, Vincente, and Valerie make cynical comments. JT: “You’re just going to give up the chance to be great?” Foley: “We’ll still have the artifact here on campus. I’m satisfied with that.” JT: “You think the artifact is going to continue to bring greatness without the coins around? You haven’t done any research at all, have you?” Foley: “Nothing quite like this has ever happened before, so…” JT: “So you’re just guessing.”

Vincente asks, “What is the name of your archmage?” Foley opens her mouth to reply, but is unable to speak the name, nor can she write it down. (Vincente: “What’s the matter?” JT: “She needs some breath spray.”) “It seems I am trusted less than I thought I was,” she murmurs, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “Crocodile tears,” sneers Valerie, and JT adds, “He trusts you as much as you deserve.” JT suggests that spraying her with Mage-Off might neutralize the spell, but she claims it would only block her own mage abilities. She contacts her archmage by sending email to a certain address, and then he phones her back.

Valerie improvises a spell to read Foley’s mind (so she thinks). Her perceptions shift somehow, as do Vincente’s. The Missouri quarter, which JT is holding in his hand, vibrates. Vincente casts Counterspell and things go back to the way they were, except that the quarter has a nimbus glowing about it and feels warm (these effects fade quickly). Both JT and Vincente perceive that something was happening near the artifact, and Vincente had countered it. Foley, who has gone pale again, relates shakily that she had felt as if her mind was flowing away.

Building upon her experience, Valerie tries again, and this time she feels she has gotten into Foley’s mind. She also senses Vincente, who has cast a Mind Reading spell of his own. The archmage’s name is Valentine Agrawal. Also, Foley thinks her husband is aware that something isn’t right, and she’s confident he’ll do something about it, though she isn’t sure what. Valerie tries another spell to trace the line of control. Through the quarter JT senses that something “big and nasty” is trying to come through the artifact. He commands, “Whoever just did that, stop!” Valerie imagines drawing a stop sign, and Vincente casts another Counterspell; JT feels whatever-it-is being pushed back and the gate closed in its face.

“I don’t know what anybody’s doing,” says JT, “but the gate has now opened twice in the last two minutes. The first time it was going away, and the second time something was coming.” “Ask Gilbert T. Gatemaster,” Valerie suggests. Max reports that Gilbert had “turned kind of pale-ish.” JT: “It could have been Rhodes, bringing in friends for tonight’s party.” Vincente: “No, there’s no way I could have stopped Rhodes.” JT: “Who says you stopped it?” Vincente: “I say I stopped it.” He accuses Valerie of opening the gate, which she denies doing.

Sevren asks Herman if he’s seen any weird quarters around lately. Volt describes a beautiful ‘chick’ named Terri he’d seen a couple of nights ago at Steak and Ale. “She had one of those. It had a weird sort of glint to it.” Sevren asks, “Are you familiar with any of the rumors that the Fuhrer used magic during the Second World War?” “Oh, yeah. He was looking for the Spear of Destiny and all kinds of stuff.” “Well, we’re still working on a couple of things like that.” “Is it true that Hitler didn’t really die?” Sevren lowers his voice; “I can’t talk about that.” Sevren insinuates that there are certain members of the Neo-Nazi movement who “don’t buy into what the global scheme of things has become” and “there has been a lot of dissention lately” and “we’ll need the help of you and all your friends to curtail some of their activities.” Herman exclaims, “I’d be honored to assist!” Sevren: “Some of the things you’re going to see might seem a little weird, but understand that some of the people you may have trusted in the past, you can’t trust anymore.” “Did you have anything to do with the thing that’s in the middle of the quad?” “A little bit.” “You mean that’s part of our master plan?” “It’s part of *someone’s* master plan.”

Foley: “What just really happened?” JT: “A gate opened. Something very evil was coming through.” Foley: “All the more reason that I should get the cabals together and we find some way to shut it off and control it.” JT: “All the more reason for you to get the cabals together and find some way to send this thing away from you.” “You’re absolutely right,” Foley says quickly, though her thoughts sneer, “Yeah, right. If that’s what he wants to hear, that’s what I’ll tell him.” Valerie: “You’re going to get people who say ‘oh, no, we need to drive way this evil thing,’ but you’re also going to get people that say, ‘oh, we need to *harness* this thing and use it to *advance our position*.’”

Max asks if Gilbert can cast a spell to make him look like the dimension-hopping Nazi. Gilbert replies that he’s “never really practiced the illusion art” nor any mind control spells. Max asks over the headsets whether they should send out the email announcing the neo-Nazi meeting; after consulting with Herman, Sevren suggests they put 11:00pm as the starting time, and insert some verbiage emphasizing the meeting’s importance. As they carry the booze upstairs, Sevren tells Herman that there are “traitors to the cause” being held within and to pay them no attention.

Vicente asks Foley “When is your husband going to be here?” She replies, “He’s got some other business. He’s probably still at the diner.” But she’s thinking that he should show up any moment now. Vincente echoes her thoughts rather than her words: “Any moment now, huh? Okay.” Valerie, her expression faintly puzzled, comments “Isn’t it funny, how the words coming out of her mouth don’t match what she’s saying?” Foley gasps. Vincente: “He didn’t buy your story, did he?” “No,” she moans. She thinks how she has seriously underestimated these people, and then it clicks in her brain that they’re basically using the coins to invoke wishes (something she herself had been afraid to attempt). “I don’t need wishes,” Vincente murmurs.

Vincente casts a spell and puts Foley to sleep, but when he tries to do the same to Joe Powell, JT’s quarter starts vibrating again. “Are you doing something with the gate now?” “No…” and Vincente casts Counterspell. On his next try, Vincente puts Joe to sleep. Madeline and Joe are tied up. Valerie unplugs the phone. JT gets on Foley’s computer, obtains Valentine Agrawal’s email address, and sends him a message. “Dear Mr. Agrawal, this part of your cell is not operating very well at this point. I’m sure you’ve heard of the large artifact that’s here on this campus, and obviously I’m not the teacher whom you’re expecting to be sending this. There is, however, an archmage coming here this evening to probably take over most of the cells of the Cabal that she’s called in, ranging from San Francisco to San Antonio to New York. Obviously if I know who you are, we’ve managed to bypass her compulsion not to tell us who we are. Here’s my phone number. You might want to call me. (signed) Jeremiah Trust, MD”

Vincente: “Well, the meeting’s going to be here…” JT; “In about an hour and a half.” Valerie: “And pretty soon some military are going to start setting up.” JT: “Or else they’re already out there, set up, waiting for us to come out.” (Max: “You haven’t even ordered the cookies or the punch yet.” JT: “Not my job.” Valerie: “He’s the punch (indicating Vincente).” Sevren: “I’m the cookie.” Max: “I thought you were the cracker.” JT: “To the Nazis, we’re all crackers.”)

Max asks Gilbert if he can set up a way for them to get away quickly. Borrowing his quarter from Stephanie, he sets up a triggered Gate. “If you touch that spot, it will glow and you can step through and you’ll be right beside the artifact on the campus.” Sevren suggests to Herman that he return to campus and round up as many people as he can for the meeting. Excitedly, Herman triggers the gate as Gilbert demonstrated and steps right on through. Sevren follows. Sensing this through the Missouri quarter, JT announces, “Sevren just came through a gate.” Valerie, melodramatically: “Eww, an Evil Nasty Thing! He and his friend the squid!” Sevren quickly explains to a tense JT that Gilbert had set up the gate, and that the other person is “one of my new associates, Herman Volt.”

Rick shows Max three diskettes’ worth of data he’d downloaded. “I’ve got enough here that if you sent it to the FBI, they could shut down a good-sized neo-Nazi network. I’ve also printed out some other stuff that might be of more immediate use to us. There’s more to these nutjobs than I thought.”

Vincente casts Missile Shield on himself before the three go check out the meeting room. There are no signs that Albert Foley has made any changes here. Valerie locates some hiding places. JT goes to the ‘fake’ meeting room (where the crystals are) and sits down.

Using the quarter again, Gilbert synthesizes a Foolishness spell (Max: “Point it *that* way”) and casts it on the two captured local neo-Nazis. Max unties them, douses them with liquor, and sends them through the gate to campus. Sevren helpfully notifies Campus Security about the “two stinking-drunk guys over on the quad.”

Before Herman goes off to gather attendees for the meeting, Sevren grasps his hand and tells him sincerely, “If you do this, you’ll be able to go quite far in our organization. Make sure Kyle Denny is there, but don’t trust him with anything.”

As he leaves the building, Vincente looks around. While there are still many students milling around, Vincente’s eye is drawn to a man across the way, wearing a long coat, who strikes him as being out of place. Thinking like the forward observer he is, Vincente extrapolates other locations where a military man would deploy his forces – on a roof across the way, at the back door, and around the side.

Using his extensive knowledge of TV detective methods, Max bypasses the magnetic alarm switch of the travel agency next to the neo-Nazi HQ. He carries the out-time Nazi into the travel agency, sits him on a chair, then dresses him up with leis, a straw hat, and a “Visit Hawaii!” sign.

As he leaves the building, Vincente looks around. While there are still many students milling around, Vincente’s eye is drawn to a man across the way, wearing a trenchcoat, who strikes him as being out of place. Thinking like the forward observer he is, Vincente extrapolates other locations where a military man would deploy his forces – on a roof across the way, at the back door, and around the side. He thinks the man on the roof bearing a longarm could be Albert Foley, and verifies this with a Detect Magic spell. There’s a spotter beside him.

Max lends his headset to Stephanie. JT tells her that she and Gilbert need to get over to the meeting room; they step through the gate.

The phone rings at neo-Nazi HQ. Max and Rick exchanges glances, then Max picks up the phone. A male voice asks if the meeting is set up for 10:00pm as planned. Max replies that it got moved an hour later due to a late dance class recital. After a brief pause, the voice says “That should work. The mule should have time to get back by then. I’ll pass the word to the commander.” The man hangs up.

After getting some equipment from the car, Vincente casts Levitate on himself, then teleports behind the two men on the roof. He casts Daze on each of them. He pulls the New Jersey quarter out of Foley’s pocket, replacing it with a normal quarter. Then he teleports away.

At five minutes ‘til six, nobody has shown up for the meeting. Six o’clock comes and goes. At 6:01 Albert Foley descends from the rooftop into the building, leaving his spotter on the roof. At 6:05, the conference room phone rings. Sevren lets it ring three times before picking it up. “Hello?” A male voice growls, “Where’s my wife?” “I don’t know. Where is she? I’ve been waiting here for five minutes now. The meeting was supposed to start at six.” “Since you’re in the room, and I told everybody that was supposed to be there not to come, you must be the one that has her. Where’s my wife?” “Well, she invited me this afternoon. I wasn’t originally on the schedule, so you wouldn’t have tried to call me. I have a card written by her, if you want to see it.” “She invited somebody else without telling me?” “I don’t know what your procedures are.” “Go check her office, tell me if she’s there. Call me back in five minutes.” The man rattles off a phone number and hangs up.

Relaying this new turn of events to the others, Sevren goes to Madeline Foley’s office. She’s still tied up and asleep. JT: “Now the question is, did he call off the meeting for Rhodes, too?” Sevren wakes Madeline up, plugs the phone back in, and calls Albert. “I don’t know what happened, I just got here. I’ll let you talk to her.” He switches to speakerphone. Albert: “Are you okay?” Madeline: “Yes, but we’ve got more powerful players in the game.” Sevren: “Are these the same gentlemen we’d talked about earlier?” Madeline: “I think so.” Sevren: “You guys should be worried.” Albert: “You know this group?” Sevren: “I’ve done some work with them in the past.” Madeline: “Then confirm – are they out-time or out-dimension? Future or alternate?” Sevren: “Yes.” Madeline: “’Yes’?” Sevren: “You have to understand, I work with people from a wide variety of backgrounds.” Madeline: “Albert, I’ve already told them that we’re willing to give them the coin and disengage if they’ll just pull back.” Albert: “Are you sure, honey? This thing is pretty nice. And what happened to yours?” Madeline: “They already have mine.” Albert: “What’s the name of this organization?” Sevren: “Well, like I said, they come from all different backgrounds, and they’ve worked for different organizations.” Albert: “We’re talking about interdimensional mercenaries?” Sevren: “That would fit the bill.” Madeline: “How many mages are we up against?” Sevren: “In essence, as many mages as they have quarters. Are you sure they have just the one from you?” Madeline: “No, they have more.” Sevren: “How many more?” Madeline: “Several.”

Albert: “What’s your rate?” (JT: “A quarter an hour, but it’d better be a good one.”) Sevren: “It depends on what you have to offer, and exactly what you’re looking to have done.” Madeline wants Sevren to broker a deal to “get them out of this dimension” and “quit their meddling.” Sevren: “I know what they’re here for. If you’re willing to help me, we may be able to get them out of here quicker. If we give them the quarters, they’ll go away.” Madeline claims she knows the locations of two more quarters – her husband’s and one other. Sevren: “That, and an exchange of information, should satisfy.” Both of the Foleys tell him to “go ahead and broker the deal.”

Sevren closes his eyes and places his hands on his temples. “They want to know if you told Rhodes not to show up for the meeting.” Albert: “No, I didn’t inform Rhodes. I wanted him to spring whatever trap was being set for him.” Madeline casts a spell on Sevren, the results of which indicate he’s been telling her the truth. “Russell Theiss has a quarter. He’s a pilot that flies out of Normal Municipal Airport. I detected it three days ago.”

Sevren: “I will need your husband’s assistance at about 10:30 and possibly for the remainder of the evening. If his friends can accompany him, that would be helpful.” He explains that the out-dimensional neo-Nazis are very interested in the gate, and they are in possession of most of the quarters. Albert gets excited at the notion that he’ll get to kill Nazis. Sevren explains to Madeline that in order for this to work he will have to re-up his contract with the extradimensional mercenaries (he’d told her earlier that he’d never work for them again), and she tells him to do “whatever you have to do to get them out of our dimension.” (Valerie: “Maybe we don’t *want* you back, Sevren.”) Sevren: “You will see me working with them again at the strike point later on this evening. You are not to act against them in any way whatsoever, or I will sever this deal and there will be consequences.” He adds, “If I appear to be working with any of the local Nazis, understand that that is part of the ruse and not an actuality.” Madeline exclaims, “How do you keep all this straight?” Sevren replies modestly, “I take notes.”

As she gets up to leave with Sevren, Madeline happens to glance at her computer. She taps some keys, stares at her screen, then sinks back into her chair. “Somebody sent a message to my archmage,” she groans. “The one you were betraying by calling this meeting,” amplifies Sevren. Madeline says, “I’ll have a lot of talking to do. Let’s get them out of here, then I can explain away most of it.” Sevren informs her, “A couple of my friends on the circuit have been contacted by him… and he’s not happy.” “Clean this up for me, please.” “I can try, but it might cost you a little extra.” Madeline will go to a safe house.

Vincente goes to a pay phone, drops in a (non-magical) quarter, calls the airport, and speaks to Russell Thiess. “I’d like to hire you for a short flight tonight, if possible. One-way to St. Louis.” Thiess quotes a price of $400 plus fuel. “I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” Vincente calls a cab.

JT announces that thirty-one people just came through the gate. The last person to emerge was a dimension jumper. Max suggests that maybe this is the “mule” the voice on the phone mentioned earlier. JT calls Albert Foley. “Thirty-one Nazis just showed up in the campus quad. You’re the biggest military force around here right now.” Sevren sprints toward the quad and climbs a building. JT places his hand on Gilbert’s shoulder and has him open a gate to distract the jumper. The thirty-one Nazis, dressed in paramilitary gear, are climbing into three large vans. Sevren has Albert direct one of his allies to ram the lead van, but the man’s only able to clip the back bumper. Albert puts two bullets through the driver of the third van. One of Foley’s men starts a firefight with the Nazis that emerge from the third van. Campus security and Normal police show up. Sevren motions to Luther Raab and they climb into Rhodes’ abandoned car.

JT has Valerie “summon the nasties” like she did before. She tries reading Gilbert’s mind. Something starts to flow through the gate, and Gilbert slams it shut. JT: “Think that’ll attract Rhodes?” Gilbert: “I hope so, because I want to put an end to this. I’m getting tired of this, wondering when he’s going to strike.” Valerie: “JT, it didn’t work.” JT: “No, not yet.” JT indicates the hidden crystals to Gilbert, who comments that Rhodes had “put a part of himself” into them.

Vincente asks the cab to wait, then walks toward a hangar and introduces himself to Russell Thiess. As they go to fill out the paperwork, Vincente has to cast Daze several times before it affects the pilot. He removes the Ohio quarter from an inner zipper pocket, wads up the paperwork, then shakes Thiess out of his daze. “What did you do?” Thiess demands, his hand immediately going to his pocket. Vincente replies, “I didn’t do anything. You know what, I’m not too sure about going with a pilot who falls asleep while I’m talking to him. Here’s a hundred dollars. I’ll see you later.” Thiess stands with a puzzled look on his face as Vincente returns to the cab and rides away.

Trotting around campus, Valerie spots a man in paramilitary garb hiding among bushes next to a building. She climbs upon the two-story building and jumps down upon the man. He tries to throw her off, but she pistol-whips him and knocks him out. He has a California driver’s license that expires in 2001. She takes his P-90, Baretta, and three (normal) quarters, and ties him up with his own shirt and pants. A few minutes later, she does pretty much the same thing to a different man.

Back on campus, Vincente scans for Terri’s quarter. He detects it toward the south, in Normal’s business district. His Trace spell tells her she’s in the back of a closed jewelry shop. JT, Gilbert, and Stephanie join Vincente, and they drive to the jewelry store. Vincente teleports right above Terri, who hits the floor, rolls, and draws a silenced .22. As Vincente floats toward her, Terri rises to a knee, pointing the gun and demanding “Where did you come from?” He simply grabs her arm; she fires three times and is startled not to hit him (he still has Missile Shield). He teleports into the car, and the abrupt shift leaves her momentarily stunned. JT takes her gun.

When Terri recovers, JT flashes his badge and asks what she’s doing in a jewelry store after closing time. “I’m going to fine you a quarter, and it had better be the right one.” “Then you’ll let me go?” she asks. JT replies, “I have no use for a thief.” Vincente starts frisking her, and she squeals, “Keep your hands to yourself!” She hands JT a Connecticut quarter. JT asks, “What did it do for you?” “Made me better at what I do. Sneaking around.” (Over the headsets: “Sevren like.”) “Where’d you get the coin?” “I found it on the sidewalk outside my apartment.” “I don’t like sentient coins,” mutters JT; “They’re appearing to those who can use them most.” In answer to Vincente’s question, she says her last name is Agee. JT returns her gun, warns her to stay out of the jewelry store, and tells her to get out of the car.

Now that the group has possession of the five quarters from this locale, they discuss what to do next. Valerie: “We need to get on our way so we can get to the next five quarters.” JT: “That’s what I say. We’ve got everything we can get here, unless we think we can take some from the Nazis.” Valerie: “I think getting off this world with all the mana around will be to our benefit.” Vincente: “I agree.” Valerie: “Because Rhodes is too strong here. We almost caught him back in Sherman, where there wasn’t any mana.” Vincente: “We weren’t aware of the whole situation at that time.”

After some prompting by JT and Vincente, Gilbert says that in this high-mana environment he should be able to link to the next gate on the roadway. JT: “Can you take two cars full of people?” Gilbert: “Now there’s what I don’t know. I might have to share some strength with your mage Vincente.”

The phone rings at the neo-Nazi HQ, and Max answers. “I wanted check and make sure everything’s on track for the 11 o’clock meeting.” Max: “As far as I know. There’s something going on, though. The three guys that were stationed here left.” “I expect you to handle your own people and coordinate things. Instructions for what we need to do tomorrow will be given out tonight. The Commander expects your cooperation.” Max: “He’ll have our full cooperation. We’ll do all we can to further the cause.” “Very good. We’ll arrive and start setting up around 10:00. We’re also going to provide more security. It seems that the opposition has been more violent lately and anticipating our moves.” Max: “Our people will be prepared.”

As soon as this conversation ends, Max asks over the headsets, “Okay, are we leaving?” “We’re going,” comes several replies. Rick seals a diskette mailer and says “I’ve got something that needs to be mailed to our main office.” Sevren looks over at Volt. “Herman, can you handle that? I just want to let you know that all the great work you’ve done today has been very impressive. You’ll be promoted to leader in this area. Thank you very much.” Herman swells with pride; he takes the mailer and promises to mail it without looking at the address. Max says to Luther, “We have to get some more stuff. You’re in charge of the bar until we get back.”

Sevren pages the safe house and soon gets a call back from Madeline Foley. “Just wanted to let you know that the deal is almost near completion. There’s the small issue of the remainder of your payment.” “My husband told me about the Nazis who came through the gate. He’s trying to scramble and get some more shooters.” “Well, anything to take the number down a little bit.” Then, “Rick, can you sent out a follow-up email to just the college students on the list, canceling the meeting?” Rick says he’ll try. Foley says her husband is setting up explosives in the parking lot that he can detonate by remote. “He wishes for claymores, but he can’t get hold of any.”

Madeline: “What’s your final payment?” Sevren: “Information that your cabal has on communication and travel spells. Have the copies in the quad in twenty minutes.” “And with this you’ll have them out of the dimension?” “Yes. Talk to Yee and his guys, see if they can scrape anything together for you also.”

JT’s phone rings. “Hello?” “Are you Dr. Jeremiah Trust?” “I am.” “Okay. Tell me about what’s going on.” “Your cabal here in Normal, Illinois, is not working very well, sir. You have a professor of philosophy who thought she could take this shard that showed up in the middle of the campus…” Agrawal says Foley was supposed to leave it alone for five or six months before doing anything with it. JT explains Foley was dealing with an out-time archmage who she thought she could control “only he never showed up for their meeting, so he’s still running around loose.” “What’s the quote? ‘Her reach has, as usual, exceeded her grasp.’” “Obviously she thought she could set herself up with a better position within the cabal. Until she found out that she couldn’t even say your name. Then she was terribly upset that you didn’t trust her. Not that it kept people with real ability from obtaining that information.” “Thanks for informing of this. I’ll deal with the situation.” JT warns Agrawal he’ll have to deal with Rhodes and dimension-hopping Nazis, and to keep people away from the road. “You’re not from here, either, are you?” “That doesn’t mean I don’t care.” Upon hearing that Foley had the magical spray, Agrawal muses, “I’ll have to either kill her or promote her. We’ll see which way it goes.” The conversation concludes with Agrawal saying, “Thank you for the information, Dr. Trust, and I look forward to not doing business with you later.” Click.

Vincente calls a Detective Spurling at the Normal Police Department. “You’ve lately had a series of robberies, haven’t you, where you haven’t been able to catch the thief? Well, I have a name for you – Terri Agee. And she owns a .22 with a silencer on it, and a Derringer up her sleeve.” “She bragged all this to you?” “No, I met her in a jewelry store. She owed me money.” “How much?” “A quarter. If you go to the jewelry store, you’ll see three bullet holes in the ceiling.” “I’ll check it out.” “Have a good day.”

Vincente talks to Madeline Foley one more time, and lets her know he was the one who took her husband’s quarter. She says, “As long as you stick to the deal that that individual brokered with you, I’m quite satisfied.” “What individual are you talking about?” Foley describes Sevren, and Vincente exclaims, “We’re not working with that guy! I’ll talk to you later,” and hangs up.

Everyone meets at the quad. Sevren picks up the stuff Foley promised. Gilbert says he could do the transfer from here, but Valerie points out that the Nazis might see them. The group drives toward the Interstate.

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