Responses to Chapter Eight:

Emmanuelle suspects that her soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law le Compte Ettiene Fauçonburg is working on acquiring wife number two.

This is good news for Genevieve, but less good news for any eligible young
virgins with magical powers who happen to be around. Either we have to deal with him in a fairly terminal way, or we have to round up all the likely candidates and send them up to Scotland to get some urgent careers advice from Magda's friend the dryad. Emmanuelle is willing to help in rounding up some nice young men for the purpose, if necessary.
Emmanuelle will only discuss the possibility of removing the virginity
qualification from potential victims of Fauçonburg with Magda and Genevieve.

She feels that the gentlemen among the MHC would just be swayed by
impractical male sentimentality on the subject.

Young Deborah appears to be his current choice. Presumably she was persuaded to consider his proposal due to the illusion that her mother had committed adultery, but could not actually be removed from the family home until her poor mother had actually committed adultery - which explains the rather unsavoury manner of Maureen's death.

As to the remainder of the scenario -

Our tweed coated gentleman wanted to use Radshaw as bait to catch whoever was organising the Saaiitaii thing.

A classic case, Emmanuelle feels, of "the enemy of my enemy is not
necessarily my friend"

He was also very unkind to that poor postal chappie. Needs watching, I'd
say.

If he is Ceriweden's son he may harbour some resentments against humanity in general.

Angherad must be rescued - although of course she may be being held for
questioning by some sort of earth elemental, so things might get a little
tricky. What's her alignment? - if it's good-ish then she's probably safe
(more or less) with anyone involved in the blessed chocolate scam, so long
as she doesn't cause them any inconvenience. Am I right in thinking that if anyone actually hurts her they'll be explaining themselves to an irate
Servitor of the Elder Gods?

The Morrigan is more likely to be Air than Earth isn't she? Emmanuelle will enquire of those who are more knowledgeable in such matters. There may be some sort of conspiracy going on there.

> General Bonnington is keen that the MHC investigate the matter of national security at HMS Edrachillis, but regretfully has to limit the possible team to UK-born Monster Hunters. This cuts out Emmanuelle....

Does it indeed? (raised eyebrow and delicate pout...)
Emmanuelle will respectfully remind General Bonnington (through the
appropriate channels, of course) that actually she had higher security
clearance from British Intelligence than he did during the last War. He is
at liberty to appologise for his error. Emmanuelle understands that he was distracted by other matters at the time and she is willing to be gracious about things.

She feels that her latest Channel dress in Navy Blue would be appropriate for the case.

On to Mr Bellnichol.
Do other members of the MHC feel happy for him to remain in his pub?
Emmanuelle feels it might be better to relocate him to somewhere a little
less at the centre of events. Her agreement to make a hiding place secure
for him remains standing. Would ordinary disguise methods help to protect him from scrying? At any rate a change of clothes and hairstyle would do no harm and would reduce the risk of him being found again by ordinary methods of detection.

Nicky

Ian,

Thanks for persevering with the story. I hope you are getting a better
level of response.

Overall I think this is a Chia plot using her old knowledge to nibble at the
fringes of Faerie. I am assuming that Fauconberg is appearing in person and I am currently guessing that the TSM is Puck. I sense some rivalry between Fauconberg and TSM. Admittedly the submarine angle has thrown me.

I note from the Ch8 text that one of the TSM pseudonyms is connected to a grail - one of the four hallows

Questions before I move onto character actions

* I seem to recall the MHC having some Cpt Nemo/Nautilus type
technology. What happened to it? Was it big enough to swallow another
submarine?

* What is the probability that Qayrawun being unable to locate a Magic
Mirror in three days of trying? I am not clear whether this is run of the
mill or evidence of an outside force at work preventing him locating the
spell.

* What fingerprints (or indeed spittle) are on the cups at Mummers
house? (Come to think of it I vaguely remember them having been washed up)

Question with potential character action
* What is the status of Bran in the MHC game? Was he dug up by King
Arthur or is he still buried and protecting Albion? If he is still around
Bran looks like a top candidate for taking out a Pit Fiend. If this is so
then someone who can speak with animals should have a word with the ravens in the Tower of London. If not then I am stumped as to what has happened to our Welsh Prof.

What Revell wants to do.

* The envelope from Wales. Fingerprints. Check for invisible ink etc
and if none - fix a new stamp (wear gloves and wet with water), reseal the
envelope and send it back.

* The envelope from Scotland. Same checks. How was it opened? Any
fingerprints not belonging to the Admiral and not on the Welsh one (I am
expecting three additional sets all belonging to GPO employees)?

* Revell wishes to return to the Scottish base via Milton of Campsie.
He would like some other MHC people with him.

* He would like to know what happened to prototypes one to three and
whether there are any more.

* Look through the records of the base staff for anomalies or
suspicious names e.g. Whiteneck or Horne

* Magical sweep of the base.

* Talk (or more accurately listen) to local fishermen about any recent
strange sights at sea.

* Find out what the submarine was armed with at the time.
What Revell would like others to do

* Continue the search for Deborah Stankey and general investigations
at Finchley + Whiteneck

* Research guardians of Troya Nova aka Old London Town

* Find and visit the Horne estate in Ireland.

Hope that all is well with you
All being well this should arrive before the 7pm deadline for initial
replies
Regards,
Tony

Ian
Am not feeling too clever, so a brief answer for now, and an apology for
minimal involvement in the last chapter - my time was spent archiving
all the stuff we'd posted. I have the lot saved, and will burn a CD, so
should be OK.

Having read the Chapter 8 post (and the answers - not ANSWERS, as the
apply to QUESTIONS, as posed by Dancer) I have had a couple of worrying thoughts:-

1. King's Dulcarnain is an anagram of Skinning Dracula!

2. The tweed clad man could be undead

3. I suspect the lich, as he does not approve of lesser undead, and has
a suitably warped sense of humour when it comes to Monster Hunters!
Will amend/further comment after I've fully read up Chapter 8 -
hopefully tomorrow, if I'm feeling less under-the-weather.

Mike

Qayrawan will still persist in trying to locate the missing child.
He will also try to carry out a Land Registry search on the Whiteneck connection, and try to trace any family connections to the Hornes.
More later - bit pushed now, and I'd forgotten about the deadline being Friday this week.
Clive
PS Looks as if Tony will be up for the holiday. I'll send out more details next week, when I have more spare time.

Ian,
Revell has a few more questions around the disappearance of the submarine.
* Were the Navy shadowing it with frigates and destroyers and did they pick up anything?
* Were there any Russian spy ships in the area?
I am on holiday most of next week so it is unlikley that I will be able to contribute to Chapter 9.
Regards,
Tony

Ian
Am interested in assisting in whatever capacity with investigations. My concerns are with the vanishing Angherad in London (as that was one of my investigations) and the missing submarine.
I will go to (stay in, I think) London and see what I can glean from the site of the Prof's disappearance (unless overruled as required for the Scotland job, on account of nationality and/or need for clerical detection skills). I would appreciate some support.
A team needs to go to Scotland sub-hunting. A few words with Harry (the lake monster) would not go amiss, in order to see if any water elemental/creature activity is known - perhaps Albrecht could help here.
Revell's suggestions ref Finchley & Whiteneck need following up, so some people need to look at this.
Care MUST be taken now that Christopher Gent has been roused.
What is the state of (un)health of Edward Endelby following his trauma?
Sorry this is brief and disjointed - trying to shake of a bout of "one symptom a day, flu-like cold!"

The ancient magic which created alcohol was not understood by those latterly using it, but they all knew that "to question the Good Folk is to chase them away or incur their wrath".

This still does not fully get us to who was behind the source (although it would be assumed to be faerie).

So this gives us at least the face of one set of villians.

The use of German spirits is interesting. Did we have any of the Bezorban Commandoes and associates unaccounted for at the end of the war ?

And there ends the good news.

This sounds a traditional approach. However, if the tweed man (who’s origins we still don’t know) was not the one who brought the manefestation there this oculd be considered (rather oddly) to be a good act!.

Suggesting some druidical link.

And, although it is stating the obvious, a dangerous combat ability – teleport without error anything instantly – "I’ll just teleport in these explosives while I teleport out"

Again, this sounds like a certain coffee.

Although a little digging may identify it.

Just an odd comment. It seems rather unlikely that a major Welsh independent would give packets of land to families so heavily associated with East Anglia – even less likely that anyone favoured by Owen Glendower would also be favoured by Henry V.

Just an observation. Not since the very earliest models have western submarines had portholes (they tend to limit the dive depth severely). The periscope is only used for above water observation. All underwater navigation and observation is done using sonar. Thus the stated "its bright" observation would not have been possible while the vessel was submerged.

No-one has specifically described our tweed man as ugly.

Ok. I’m totally baffled by this one but we will ask a couple of basic questions.

1. Are all the skirts shortened or just the one worn.
2. Are all the dimensions reduced or just the hem length.
3. If just the hem is shortened are there signs of recent stitching. I.e. is this convention technology if driven in a bizarre manner.

The child may well have been paralysed by hold person at the time his throat was cut since he stood still and bled as long as his muscles would react to his commands.

Self evident I know but after mummer this does seem to be a Fauconberg signature. And may well be a message directly to us. I’m just not totally clear what the message is other than "you’re still behind me".

Again this fits with the symptom of dissapearing materiel – in fact the disappearing dress material may be some form of sick message or pun on this!

Genieveve will probably relocate to London, She would like to look at the dig where Angharad disappeared, Was she alone at the time, can we reconstruct what happened? (Flaxton would be useful). If time allows get involved in the Finchley case, Genevieve was on the original investigation and has met Deborah and would like to assist in the hunt.

If however Fauconberg is spotted in the London area, Genevieve will volunteer to investigate the Horne estates in Wales.