Miles goes to court and announces a big party for the reopening of Mallory's on Saturday. Before that happens, though, there are some other incidents: Magda gets a permit to transport swords as a collector and mounts one on her wall at home with heavy brackets (which she could of course rip off in a pinch). Milton researches ley lines and late at night sees a spider testing its web by plucking on it. He realizes that Victor has been plucking on the web of ley lines in Boston. Later he describes this to people as "he has mastered the harp, so when it comes time to play it..."
Miles's party happens on Saturday night, and it's a bit hit. Gurk returns with a bunch of other goblins with weenies on sticks, but he isn't let in. Victor and Lucia also both turn up (separately). The party is however slaughtered early when Miles plays a tune on his special pipes, causing the party to break up into many little more private parties in other locations. Miles himself is seduced by Lucia. Desiree and Victor try to help Johnny out with his love life, and persuade him to write a letter to Amanda and tell her how he feels.
In the morning Miles finds Johnny still working and is unable to resist basically rewriting the letter. Johnny gives it to Desiree who has promised to deliver it, and she does, enduring a lot of pooka double-talk to get a reply. Miles also has a visit from Victor who asks him to make sure that the whole thing with Sir Ten and the Dragon will be okay for Sir Ten. He can't do it himelf because no one would believe him if he found out something terrible and tried to head off disaster.
Magda goes sword shopping and comes back with a SunSword. Milton spends some of Sunday following Madame Lao, and discovers that she lives in the building with the restaurant in which they met Mr. Li - almost at the top of the building. A very nice apartment, to be sure. Miles, Magda, and Desiree meet at court and talk about things, and it becoems apparent that Miles has fallen to Lucia's charm (he is even invited for dinner that evening). Magda and Desiree have a morality discussion after he leaves which is too confusing for transcription.
On Monday Johnny gets the reply and is overjoyed. Miles finally goes and deals with the goblin hot-dog legion, building them a bonfire on which to roast their slightly aged sausages. The next day Johnny is persuaded to invite Amanda to dinner (and his invitation is subtly edited by all and sundry), and she accepts. Miles lunches with Sir Ten and tortures him about Desiree in a not-too-subtle manner. Sir Ten says he still hasn't seen the girl in question. Looking at Sir Ten, though, it's evident to Miles that Madame Lao's work is having good effect.
Milton does some more research and finds that Mr. Li owns the restaurant building... and in fact about 1/6 of Chinatown, in one way or another. Also, he's really old: there's no birth certificate on record, and he seems to have owned property back at the turn of the century. There's no record of him having a daughter, though, or a wife for that matter. It's unclear whether he is the Master or just the Master's immortal spokesman.
On Wednesday Johnny is very happy - his date must have gone well. Desiree visits Victor and surprisingly is not invited in. He says he'll talk to her when he's figured out what he wants. Boston court gossip says he's ripping up romance novels and that his apartment is covered with loose pages.
Our heroes confer and decide to try to track down the Eshu who told the MIB story some time ago, and Desiree writes a letter to Duke Brinestout. Then she goes to talk to her matchmaker friend about Madame Lao. Her friend says that Mr. Li's daughter is too high for such a lowly matchmaker as herself to deal with, but asking around other matchmakers pointed her at Madame Lao, who had just arrived from California, and deals more with the upper crust. She thinks that Harry needs the polishing Madame Lao is giving him before he can deal with the likes of Mr. Li.
And Mile's affair with the Countess continues through another afternoon of illicit dalliance...
Player Notes:
To try to clarify Desiree's and Maggie's talk about Lucia and Miles
(because it was an amusing one), it was wacky. Kind of in two parts:
morality and adverse effects. When it came to morality, Desiree said
she didn't care, though Maggie did quite a bit. When it came to
adverse effects, Maggie thought it would come out ok (at least until
Soraya gets back) and Desiree thought it would be terrible. Desiree
said that the problem wasn't that Miles was having the affair, it was
that he seemed mind-controled. Maggie didn't agree that it was his
mind that was being controlled, and as two people with such experience
in having affairs, it wouldn't end badly.
Maggie left with the distinct impression that what was really needling
Desiree is that Miles was having an affair with someone who wasn't
her. The fact that the someone is in many ways superior to Desiree
might make it even harder. Maggie would never say such things,
though. ;) -MIN