Saus

[Graybeard]

"I don't know," Sazaki said. "Maybe the 'ghost' was Father Egbert himself? It seems as likely, or if you prefer, no more impossible than the alternatives. For that matter, I'm not convinced that the girl really saw anything at all. By all accounts, the two girls were clearly impaired when they emerged from the gate; in fact, I'm surprised the Kiyokans allowed them onto the gate to begin with. A hallucination still seems the most realistic of any of the possibilities."

Argus noticed that Brother Miguel was finally rubbing his brow, particularly around a red spot over his right eye. Bedbug bite, or detection of an evasion? He didn't know, but Miguel, who'd been quiet for most of the exchange, chose this moment to speak up.

"Master Portalmage, as you probably know, the Veracian Church officially denies the existence of ghosts, holding that the human soul is gathered to Our Lord Luminosita at death, or consigned to damnation if unworthy to enter Luminosita's Presence. In any event, the soul doesn't stick around to haunt the living. Our position is that any reports of ghosts are either hallucinations of some sort, or the results of sorcerers -- which certainly do exist -- testing the faith of the insecure believer." (Ironic, that, thought Argus.) "However, while I am a priest of the Church, I am not Veracian by birth, and I come from a land that is more ... uncertain ... about the supernatural. I think it important for us to speak to this girl. Can it be arranged?"

A faint smile played around Sazaki's lips. "Well, Brother Miguel, I think you'd have a better idea about that than I would, and certainly a better chance of bringing it about. Remember that I'm the foreigner here. It isn't like being in Kiyoka, where the Transit Authority and Homeland Security people talk to each other daily and we work for the same government." Something in Argus' face suggested that this line of reasoning was best not dwelt on, so he continued, "If you'll forgive me for saying it, that kind of cooperation is limited here in Veracia. After all, that's why our warp gate is here in Saus, rather than Emerylon, which is the Veracian capital and most important city. The government of Emerylon barely acknowledge the existence of us 'infidels,' and they certainly don't want to talk to us over anything as outlandish as the report of a ghost, particularly one associated with a technology that some of them still believe may be evil anyway. Sorry, but I think you're on your own on that one." He leaned back in his chair as Miguel stopped rubbing his bug bite.

[Drannin]

Argus frowned. "I'm not convinced that the 'ghost' wasn't just the shadowy image of some form of interloper," he said. "Some sort of impression due to interfering in the pattern transmission. Whatever it was, it's worth investigating. We'll have to look into meeting with these ladies..." Argus slowly trailed off.

"Er... since we're on the subject of Emerylon not exactly being welcoming, how would one go about visiting the city discreetly, without making too much of an impression. In other words, without guards hassling oneself?"

Not that Argus couldn't simply make the ground beneath them very, very hostile... but that route wasn't very diplomatic.

[Graybeard]

The portalmage stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, it probably depends how unrecognizable you want your Tsuirakuan heritage to be. At the extreme, you would probably want to endure some minor, but rather uncomfortable ... surgery." Brother Miguel nodded gravely, although he was trying to suppress a guffaw. Sazaki caught the look on Argus' face. "Or perhaps not."

"It would at least allow you to use public toilets," Miguel pointed out helpfully.

[OOC: Sorry, but you kinda asked for that. ]

[Drannin]

Argus rolled his eyes. "I'll be careful, alright?" Some people...

"I WAS thinking along the lines of a hood or something," he added. "Regardless, is there anything else of import that you can think of that happened in the aftermath of the transport? Obviously no-one else saw or felt anything odd."

(OOC: Everyone's a joker... )

[Graybeard]

"Ah," Sazaki said. "I wasn't sure how ... comprehensive ... you wanted your cover in Emerylon to be. To concentrate on less intrusive things, then: As I said, the city has more than its share of people who are suspicious of foreigners, but the main thing is not what you wear, but how you act. You're fortunate in that your general physical appearance -- height, skin tone, all that -- is all fairly common in Emerylon. Actually, Brother Miguel, you're more likely to look out of place there, but your priest's robes should be adequate to keep the questions and concerns to a minimum. As for you, Dr. Cleiviein, I'd suggest just picking up a few simple shirts and trousers, and you should have no trouble looking like a local.

"The bigger issue is behavioral. Magic, unless wielded by a member of the Veracian Church, tends to be viewed askance by most Emerylonians. Casting spells in public, while not looking like you're with the Church, is guaranteed to attract attention, quite likely of a sort that you don't want to attract. Cast your Translation effects in private -- you'll need them, after all -- and then keep the other spellcraft to a minimum. That's easy enough to say, but we Tsuirakuans have a tendency to behave as though we know that magical assistance is at our disposal if we need it -- as indeed it is, at least for most of us. The Emerylonians will pick up on that too. Don't even think in magical terms if you can help it. By the way, that part is true to some extent here in Saus as well." Argus and Miguel nodded; this was all basic stuff for anyone going abroad, yet so many people forgot it. The "Ugly Tsuirakuan" wasn't just a creature of myth...

"So then on to your other question," Sazaki continued. "About the only thing out of the ordinary that I can think of is that it took us a bit longer to notice that Father Egbert was unaccounted for than it should have. We have what we call a 'checksum' procedure that's done automatically on the life patterns at both ends, to make sure that what goes in is the same as what comes out. That functioned normally. In addition, the portalmages operating the gate do a manual check to count the number of travelers entering and exiting the gate, and reconcile it with the checksum. That's supposed to be done before the chamber is even opened at the receiving end, but in practice it usually occurs by way of the portalmages counting heads as people pass through the doors. I have already taken steps to make sure that that lax procedure won't be repeated." He broke off as Miguel and Argus exchanged a look ...

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Drannin, hope you don't mind if I "borrow" Argus for a few lines here, while you're re-establishing your Internet connection; don't want this thread to get too stale. /OOC...]

Argus and Brother Miguel had the same thought at the same time, but Argus said it first. "Now wait a minute. You said the checksum feature functioned correctly? As in, 16 people beamed out of Kiyoka, and 16 people beamed in here? But only 15 came out of the gate..."

"No, I said it functioned 'correctly,' according to Portalmage Ryuzo," Sazaki said. "I assume that meant that the error was caught, but --"

Miguel interrupted him. "You 'assume' it was caught at the checksum stage? But you don't know it was?"

All the color drained out of Sazaki's face. "Purple hells," he cursed. "How did we ever miss that? No, I don't know, and you're right, we may have gotten unforgivably careless there." He punched a button on his crystal-ball communicator, said, "Clare, get Portalmage Ryuzo in here on the double, my orders, drop whatever he's doing."

"I don't know," Sazaki repeated, "but we are damn well going to find out."

[Drannin]

(OOC: Hey, I'm not dead! Just with limited access. I'm visiting, so I have internet this weekend up until mid-Sunday. I should have full access again a couple days after that. Now then...)

Argus said nothing. His mind was spinning like a drunkard's stomach on a powered merry-go-round, much like one found on an amusement park he was ashamed to have had a part in building. It had been obvious from the beginning, but a circumstance like this really drove it home.

The Tsuirakuans were covering something up. And doing it very, very well. But why? And wait... Sazaki was clearly upset by this whole situation. So far, the people they had talked to had been very forthright and open. It was like a conspiracy from one of those mystery novels Addon had been so fond of. Not for the first time, Argus wondered what he had wandered into. He sincerely wished he was thinking it in the same way as when he had wandered into "Madame Feryla's Aggressive Striptease Revue" a year ago. This was nowhere as entertaining.

Except... in some strange way... Argus felt even more alive now than he had than that time when he had wandered right into the middle of that flesh pit.

"Is this Ryuzo usually a lax employee?" he asked while they were waiting. Argus didn't feel they would be waiting long.

[Graybeard]

"Lax? I would say not," Sazaki said. "However, I should caution you: he does have certain ... shortcomings ... as regards, shall we say, communications skills. Ah, here he is now."

A short, skinny man in portalmage's robes came through the door, neither knocking nor introducing himself as he plunked down into an empty chair. He had the same shaved head as all the other portalmages Argus and Brother Miguel had seen, but the resemblances ended there: he looked about twenty years younger than the average portalmage, he had heavy, black-rimmed glasses, his beard was wild and untrimmed, and his robes looked as if they'd been slept in, as in fact they had -- for several nights in a row. Argus and Miguel had exactly the same thought looking at him: a portalnerd?

"Yeahwhatizzit ... sir?" the young man said.

[Drannin]

"Mr... Ryuzo, is it?" Argus asked slowly. "My name is Argus Cleiviein and this is Brother Miguel. We're here investigating the disappearance of Father Egbert."

"Yokaywhataboutit?" replied Ryuzo. It took Argus a moment or two to translate this, and in the meantime Ryuzo apparently got a little impatient. Given that the wait was all of two seconds, Argus deduced that the young... nerd... was not very patient.

"Thisgonnatakelong? Cuz, Luro, hewuztellinmethisjoke, hadmeroffle." Ryuzo giggled shrilly at the end of this sentence, before abruptly cutting it off.

Argus deduced two things from this method of communication: Ryuzo had evidently suffered brain damage that had damaged his speech centres, and that he was never, ever going to copulate with a woman without paying a great deal of money.

(OOC: roffle=ROFL)

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Yeah, you're getting into the spirit of this... /OOC:]

Sazaki looked like he was about to cast some spell that would cause the earth to open and swallow Ryuzo, but Brother Miguel cleared his throat and said, "Hey, man! Chill! Talk to me about the checksum. Howz it work? Is the gazinta the same as the gazouta?"

"Yeahman, sixteengazinta, sixteengazouta." Suddenly, as though a switch had been thrown, Ryuzo's speech pattern changed, as he detected a subject he could get into. "See, the first harmonic of the life pattern modulator sets up this fringing field and there's an elliptical heterodyne sensor on the mana accumulator that..."

Ryuzo launched into an incredibly detailed (and still ultra-high-speed) technical description of how the checksum system worked, and Miguel let it wash over him like a wave of words, but he'd already learned the interesting thing: sixteen in, sixteen out. Sazaki's facial expression said he'd got the point too. The three men sat waiting for the jargon to come to an end.

But if sixteen people emerged from the warp process, where did Egbert go?