WARNING, Will Robinson, WARNING!

ok, looks like we stumbled in to the equivalent of the Clerical Mafia or SuperMasons. Oh, that we had a tactical neutron bomb. we could take out the badies and capture the library!

Delrin, obviously you must not get within shouting distance of the Master (or you'll never come back. wonder if the guy is some supervampire, demon or just magically/ghod-enhanced). if what this guy says is true, that the urakai left this place intact, it has Major Juice.

what it looks like is that people come here, a percentage get their loyalties suborned by the Master, and he sends them off as his personal (unsuspecting) spies back to their original orders. Griss looks like he came and got trapped (that's why he's fat and can't remember exactly why he's still here). he must be part of the window dressing. they probably let a percentage come and go unmolested to advertise the place, periodically grab a few of the tougher ones (like this Griss) to keep as reserve troops or send off as unwitting spies, and turn a very select few into their own priests. that Griss seems pretty powerful himself means the Master is a giant among us mere pygmies. way too tough for us. we would probably succumb merely to his aftershave lotion!

actually, this is a pretty clever set-up. these guys can control, or at least keep tabs on, the happenings of all the major religions, and thereby, indirectly, control them and their followers. eventually, they'd have moles at the very highest levels of all the religious orders. wouldn't be surprised if the moles of some of the religions have made a retreat here mandatory for promotion in their order, thus lending legitimacy to the place and ensuring propagation of the bad guys' control!

*i wonder how many of the religions suspect.*

ok, cool. what we have here is a major resource in the library. also in contacting higher level clerics of many orders who come here legitimately and aren't ensnared (identifying them may be a problem, but we'll work on it).

i figure delrin can do the following:

1) find out how long this particular Master has been in charge. even-money says he's the original guy with sequential identities. find out the poop on who founded the place and why, and who the initial disciples were. either the founder is the badguy or this place was ursurped early-on by the badguys. delrin and fuji must be certain *not* to attend services or meet the bossguy in any way.

2) see if delrin can use the library. Alibi: as a druid, the crystal forest is a natural for delrin, so shouldn't be too suspicious. he can say he's searching for an overall pattern to try to understand how the crystal forest might have come about and how to begin to reverse the damage as his life's work. this is a bit risky, but if he investigates several topics at once, maybe they won't see a pattern. he can start with Korbit's Hole, the Sacred Grove, that spooky place on the coast where everyone throws themself into the see, and the second orc war with reference to urakai control of Chelto and mentions of DemonBinder (i still don't get how they could have found it but lost control of it, much less how we're gonna find it up there). oh, and this magic harp-thingy of the Trolls, valen's point, the origins and intial battles of the second war, the crystal forest, etc. (i.e. throw in everything and the kitchen sink too). this will give us some idea of the types of info we can find here.

3) we can try to lure Griss out of here, snatch him, deprogram him and add a high-level druid to our party for a time as his payback to us. (i like this option.)

4) check out who this party is that is going on a difficult mission and what it is. if we can find out what it is, maybe we can 'join' them or follow them and snatch their goodies.

5) find out who and what the ambitious babe is.

6) *DAVE*: is the Assasin Cult considered a religion? the Thugge Cult in india used to whorship Kali, but it's hard to really call that a religion, merely a subsect of hinduism. since dom has a wisdom of 18 and sid a charisma of 18, you'd think they could maybe operate here on a shallow basis and resist being snagged. but again, this depends on whether the assasins are considered a religion or not. all we really want to do is use the library, not shake this place's tree.

7) speaking of tree-shaking, if not too many people suspect this place, we have another Trump Card in our hand. *Question*: should we ask Corbie to come clean with us about the Cabal he is in? This place reeks of icky sliminess. Can't be healthy for anyone, much less us. if we can get some goodie-group involved in monitoring them/destroying them, we have done the world a favor and maybe set ourselves up for major moxie (saving the world: all in a day's work, maybe even some E.P. in it for us: *some* people still think the world is worth something). Should we give Corbie a call on this one??

8) i think we should put off prying too deeply into the Garden of Solitude for the time being. sounds very interesting but very risky. delrin: find out how high and thick the walls are. (don't do a 'birds eye' though, as i'm sure they will be sensing for that type of spying.): maybe rosebud can do a reconnoiter (a bit more subtle and involves psionics, not magic per se (i believe)).

9) best we be on our way before we get sucked in to deeply. once ensnared, i doubt we can get ourselves out. we could even use this place to ensnare some of our enemies in the future.

it also occurs to me, that since the nobility of Pranan is fragmented, and if the religions are the binding glue of the region, and this place controls the religions, that we are, effectively, at the seat of the government of Pranan. if we want to deal the dirt on Bethalen Station, or any other dirt, *this* is the place to do it. ('course, we don't know who we're dealing with here, but then, do we ever?)