At Balthasar’s house, Balthasar and Daniel slept. Rosicrucian napped through his drunken torpor and miraculously woke up without a hangover. Camera and Philyra hung out in the kitchen, talking and listening to NPR. Rosicrucian came in searching for coffee. All that was found was a coffee pot with some brownish “liquid” in it. Rosicrucian’s attempts to heat it up only resulted in sick bubbling. He poured it out into the sink, where it proceeded to eat through the stopper and some pipes. The second attempt at coffee was rather more successful. Balthasar came in and began interrogating Camera about his plans to leave town. Camera was remarkably reticent on the subject. After some more altercations with the coffee, the three commoners left for the nocker union hostel. Balthasar sulked about being mistreated by ungrateful commoners and called Gala, only to have the phone answered by a disgruntled man who repeatedly informed Balthasar that it was three in the morning. Camera trucked Philyra and Rosicrucian to the hostel, where they were sworn at by a clock and talked to nocker unionists Jerry and Roger. Jerry had the flu, which caused him to spend considerably less time swearing than usual. The nockers agreed to help arrange a distraction so that the three commoners could skip town unnoticed. Roger recommended a group of strangers coming through town who had crashed their hot-air balloon into a field near Caer Angelita and Caer Lobos. Jerry went to bed, and Roger drove Camera, Philyra, and Rosicrucian out to the field. A small group of nobles were settled around a campfire near a balloon… a troll, a satyr, a sidhe with baby, and a sluagh. Camera ran negotiations with the sidhe (Lady Caroline) for use of the balloon while other characters made repairs, fought, and passed out. Meanwhile, Balthasar was out communing with his phoenix, Valefor.

Storyteller’s Notes: what a fun session! All coffee should be as evil as the coffee at Balthasar’s house! Although things were rather saddened at the end by the presence of the characters from “Heart of Winter”… working with Cailean after she’s lost her mind really depressed me, because I loved her so much. The players did a fair job juggling both their old and new characters, which won’t be necessary for much longer. I can’t wait to watch these kids wreak destruction in their attempts to escape. I’m apparently terrible at NPCing nockers, by the way… profanity doesn’t come naturally to me when I’m typing, and Jerry forgot to swear for two whole articulate sentences. We decided that he wasn’t feeling well.