keys

[from_scratch]

The dragon is kept as comfortable as can be safely arranged. The mages regain mana; Ice goes to Prime's house to put him under. The dragon is eventually needled into revealing that he used a small invisible monster from his "monster bin" to spy on the sphinx and learn the password to the mysterious portal. The small invisible monster is caught and caged and fed millet and offered to Idania to poke at. The dragon is mirrored, on his medallion and his eye both, and allowed to shift from out of his restraints and go home. He makes a perfunctory request to use Phix and Max's bathroom first and doesn't stop to wait for their reply before he does so, then leaves without further ado. Cam makes some additions to the robot army, less their network connections; an existing robot comes to the Belfry, describes the parts it needs to add the new ones to the network, receives same, installs them, and takes the new additions home except for one that is set to watch over twin surveillance mirrors in a disused Belfry corner.

And then Phix asks:

"So, what could be done to portals to make them less vulnerable to small invisible monster spies?"

Comments

[darkest_evening]

"It'll take a while," says Prime, "since portals can't actually be tweaked. They're too fragile. Only destroyed and then remade. So, priority list, please?"

[from_scratch]

"...Medallion because dragon, Inferno because if somebody found it they could bring daeva, Chamomile because questionably okay mages are aware of the plane, Hex because spellbinders could be trouble and we have to be especially careful not to kill them if they show up since familiars, yours last?"

[darkest_evening]

"Mine should be last," he agrees. "It's in my house. My house is already absurdly safe."

[from_scratch]

"Exactly. Do you want a physical list or can you remember it?"

[darkest_evening]

"I can remember it. While we're working on it, is there anyone that would like their portal moved?"

[from_scratch]

"Well, the disguised tree outside Vernon's house in Inferno is probably not ideal."

[castmyown]

"And we might not want ours to be in our house anymore," volunteers Max.

[darkest_evening]

"Okay. I can move both, I just need to know where I'll be putting the new portal."

[shesepankh]

"Where else would ours go? We don't have a campus yet, and I don't think we can pay for it in cash - the old Chamomile bills Ice turned up have daemons posing next to the presidents and I don't think we'd better have Cam counterfeit big stacks of it."

[castmyown]

"I'm not sure, honestly. You just mentioned that you might not want it in our house anymore?"

[shesepankh]

"Yeah, I just - am quite lacking in better ideas. Unless you know where we can buy some land cheap to put a campus on in the next few days."

[castmyown]

"No, sorry."

[darkest_evening]

"You have a few days to talk about it. Or you can put your campus in space or something, we have Cam."

[shesepankh]

"A space campus would be cool, but the shuttle would be noticed. I guess we could hide it under the Avalon, if Adana knows how to hollow out space under a small town without it collapsing?"

[ask_nicely]

"I can, but I'm worried about plumbing or electrical wiring."

[from_scratch]

"Go deep before you go sideways."

[ask_nicely]

Adana giggles. "Thanks, Cam, but I'd still want a map of plumbing and wiring and sewage and such."

[shesepankh]

"It's probably available, I'll look into it. Anyway, our portal is on a door. We can unhinge it and put it in the underground campus with its revisions when the campus exists."

[ask_nicely]

"That works. Let me know when you want an underground campus, then."

[shesepankh]

"Will do."