I talked to Random. He was pleased to have news of Corwin, and abit concerned that the invasion in Argent had roots in Chaos. But since wyverns were not seen, thought it probably did not. He was under the impression that whatever the problem was, Corwin could probably handle it, but had no problems with my offering to help. He had some news too. Another family member had been found; one that had been missing for ~100 years. He was a brain (with eye stalks) in a jar. Whoohoo, my first really unattractive male relative. The other news was brighter, seems that Dworkin had become fond of Vialle and was working to restore her sight. Just as I finished updating her, he showed up in the form of a scruffy, hunchbacked dog. I left. Somewhere during this time an off hand comment was made that Millisandra, (Queen of Rebma for those without a scorecard) is also a daughter of Corwin’s, and therefore a half sister of mine. I will have to go talk to her some time.

I trumped Corwin and offered my help. He pulled me through to Argent. He and a small army, with quite a few refugees, were in retreat. He asked my help in finishing a ring of fire around the city. Whatever it was, it had won the city. It took much straining between the 2 of us to make the ring as many many small ability pattern users were opposing our efforts. He had brought along several of the dead from the attacking force. They were strange mismatched creatures, which, even dead were attacking people. When approaching one of them, you got a barrage of negative emotions, strong enough that I’m amazed that anyone could carry them at all. Upon examining one, I got the impression that they had never been alive at all; maybe just animated. I know when I’m out of my depths and I’m not afraid to ask for an expert’s help. I talked Corwin into calling in Fiona.

Fiona and Corwin bargained for a time, but I never had any doubts. He needed the help too bad, and I don’t think she could resist a puzzle like this for too long. He ended up promising her that she could walk his pattern if she found a way to get rid of the infestation. I think that may be a good thing. He’s very lonely, but maintains a distance from everyone to the point of isolation. That a few family members could break this isolation should help (despite his distaste for it right now). Besides, he will need her help putting protections in place around his pattern. I found out later that his primary protections are a high wall and a few guards, so pretty much anyone could walk it.

While Fiona gathered some things, Corwin went about setting up camp. Wanting to help, but not wishing to be in the way, I sat down and sunk into the pattern with the idea that I could use probability manipulation to make things go more smoothly. Imagine my surprise when I found someone using the local pattern to do just the opposite. I tracked the perp down to a basement of an abandoned train station. When I got there, it turned out to be a really big ratoid creature. It saw me despite the glamour I was using. Remember the comment about knowing my limits? I ran. It was pretty fast, and may have caught me except for some defensive luck. When I got outside, there were other people with guns. It took awhile, but it was killed. The thing that made it so tough to kill was that, whenever it was hit, pieces would fly off and attack on their own. There was no central system to take out. As a result, the neural disrupt power word had almost no effect. Flame-throwers spring to mind as a possible weapon; if the damn things burn. Corwin was pretty shaken by the fact that the dang thing could be in camp and using his pattern without him feeling it. Since I had found the first one, I settled in to look for more.

Fiona showed up with some assistants and equipment. She summoned some elementals and told them to check out one of the corpses. They said screw that noise. She forced one of the elementals into the corpse, and it died, so their rebellion wasn’t without reason.

My thought is that it is some sort of hive-mind that got onto the pattern while he was away, and that these corpses are little more than a collection of drones, assembled into a form to accomplish some task.