A couple days pass in which mercifully nothing much happens. Then on Saturday night, Miles is tending bar at Mallory's when Desiree comes in. Which isn't what happens, but it's a way of letting you know that Desiree is there. Anyway, Miles is tending bar when Madame Lao walks in and indicates over the clamour of the band that she wants to talk to him. They go out back, and Madame Lao shifts, and twists... and turns into a taller, younger, and rather good looking (well, people would probably say "handsome" rather than "beautiful", like certain classes of model) Chinese woman. She introduces herself as the Dragon's Daughter, and says she wants Miles and his friends to get the pearl from her father. Miles asks her for an explanation, but she only wants to give it once, so he gathers everyone together and they all head to Desiree's office where it is quieter. Everyone is our heroes plus Priscilla.
The explanation runs like this (in Mandarin, Milton translates): dragons need magic to survive and the magic has been getting less and less. Her father (who is in fact Mr. Li, for those who have been wondering) doesn't think that they will be able to last out the century. But changelings, by virtue of being connected to humans, don't need so much magic. So by marrying his daughter to one (marriage having metaphysical meaning) he can ensure her survival, anyway. And who more appropriate than the heir to the Duchy? Except recently he has gotten another idea, which is that he can use the pearl directly on himself to provide the sort of connection that his daughter was going to get indirectly through marriage. She actually likes Sir Ten ("He's a nice boy.") and thinks this is wrong. However, she can't run off with the pearl because alone she can't evade her father, who would notice.
Lots of questions are asked and answered. The dragons can't go back to the dreaming because there are other dragons (Wind and Celestial dragons) that won't let them after a war many centuries ago. A quick check by Miles with the Focus verifies that trying to get her through a door into the dreaming will result in horrible wind dragon attack. Action must be taken soon because the master might do something with the pearl within days. You can't teleport into and out of his palace. Though Sir Ten cannot enter the palace of the Master because wards will be set off, he is called and gates in, unfortunately destroying Desiree's desk in a magical accident. It could have gone anywhere. They let him in on what's up, although not on the Madame Lao's secret identity part despite Desiree's pointed looks at the dragon's daughter. The end assault plan is to send in the sneaky people (Milton, Priscilla, and Desiree) and keep Magda and Sir Ten and Miles in reserve. The dragon's daughter will go inside first and start another loud argument with her father to distract him.
The palace is accessed through the Master's apartments. At the top of its steps are two huge lion-dogs. Desiree manages to put them to sleep, and she and the two sluagh head inside, through the main hall and the courtyard to a sort of temple area where the pearl is supposedly kept. A search ensues, but the pearl is not there. He must have moved it! Priscilla is sent back out to get something from Miles to find it. Sir Ten has to be sent home for a while, though, because otherwise Mile's dousing technique only finds him.
Back inside, it quickly becomes apparent that the pearl is inside the Master's personal chambers. As they creep closer, the sluagh can hear the argument. The dragon's daughter occaisionally throws in spurious references to where the pearl is - "In the study, right off this room, where anyone could get it!" and luckily her father is too angry to understand. Priscilla sneaks across the hall where they are arguing and into the study.
Unfortunately, when she leaves the study with the pearl, an alarm is set off, and the three thieves start running for their lives. Milton and Desiree both are slammed into walls by his fury, but Desiree's body magic manages to prevent any serious injury. Priscilla, of course, takes off like a shot and manages to outpace the master because his daughter is hanging on one of his arms as an anchor.
Once the chase reaches the courtyard, however, it takes a decidedly different turn. He turns into a huge Chinese dragon, and then Desiree decides to throw something at him as a distraction. Who could have known she would pick the urn containing the ashes of his father? The dragon turns to pursue Desiree instead, and she barely misses being crushed as Milton pulls her back into a side room.
Meanwhile, outside they have received a message that everything has gone to hell in a handbasket, and the lion dogs have awakened. Magda manages to take one unawares and knock it off the stairs into a twenty story fall, but in fighting the others she miscalculates in a leap and ends up in its mouth. It starts chewing on her. This does, however, give Priscilla time to escape with the Pearl. Sir Ten is called and gates back in to help Magda.
Inside, Desiree manages through her desperation to open a gate to somewhere and goes through it with Milton. They are somewhere in the deep dreaming - at the palace of the Celestial Dragons, in fact. They flee off into the forest as the Master comes through the gate and is assaulted by the other dragons, and after they recover enough to stop running Desiree is able to return them to her apartment.
Meanwhile the remaining lion-dog is getting the better of Magda for a while - it's a pretty mean monster - but it isn't able to swallow her outright and Sir Ten is able to kill it before it kills her. Barely. Everyone runs away, expecting a huge dragon to come kill them since they don't know he's gone into the dreaming. Eventually communication happens and everyone converges on Desiree's apartment (and another Opening accident causes half her bed to end up downtown).
Desiree is able to bring Magda back to "weak but whole" condition, and Sir Ten is able to absorb his last piece with Miles' help. It's unclear what the speciality of that piece is, though. Everyone wonders whether the Master will return or be eaten by the other dragons... and goes home to sleep off the excitement.
Player Notes:
I just remembered the point I meant to bring up in game: If marriage works for the dragon's daughter, why doesn't the Master just marry a Changeling as well? (Heck, he could propose to Duchess Day, and they could scheme against us and their wayward children in the privacy of their own home.) -MIN
Perhaps Sir Two is the one with some concept of social graces.
-MIN