Monty Haul

**Phat loot.**

## Synopsis

The day after Bethel's wedding, Figaro Finch meets with Amaryllis and Juniper to discuss Juniper's stay at the Athenaeum of Sound and Silence. Finch is rather insistent on knowing what the Council of Arches have been up to, between their odd birth, their odd wedding, odd new members, missing half-elf, and Juniper's need for training. Finch tells the two that Juniper has been approved for one week at the Li'o'te Temple at the Athenaeum of Sound and Silence to teach him Still magic and one tap from the Rod of Whispers to teach him Vibration magic.

Finch's support does not come for free, as he asks to know the bigger picture. Amaryllis tells him that they have a time chamber and intend to use the compressed time for Juniper's learning of vibration and still magic, which is all technically true. Finch notes that they are burning through accumulated years very quickly, and asks what the purpose of a multi-talented mage is for Amaryllis, but she remains tight-lipped. Finch seeks reassurance that the disaster at the Athenaeum of Speculation and Scrutiny won't be repeated, as he won't necessarily bail them out a second time. Finch tells Amaryllis that he wants cooperation between the Council of Arches and Uniquities, and Amaryllis reminds him that her actions put pressure on the tuung, which was one thing that Uniquities wanted. Finch brings up additional things about the Council that he wants to know more about, including Valencia's ability to attack the hells. Juniper assures Finch that if trouble occurs at Sound and Silence, he'll defer to the local authorities and wait quietly for Finch to take action. Finch agrees, netting Juniper the acceptance of the quest ***The Sound of Silence***.

Before the party leaves, they attend to some business with Speculator Masters. Masters is bringing one of Uther's many caches of entads for the party's use, and he also wants answers to the questions that he has been ruminating on during the five hundred years since Uther's departure. Raven had left shortly after Bethel and Ropey's wedding to Boastre Vino to bring him over, and the two of them are coming up the hill to where Bethel is. Bethel uses her sensorium and illusion control to relay their conversation to Juniper and Amaryllis. Masters is unhappy with Raven putting herself in danger, but Raven insists on being one of Juniper's companions and working to save Aerb. Raven is unhappy with her father being overprotective of, and not listening to her. Masters asks if Raven still thinks about Uther, but she doesn't respond.

Masters comes into the room, apologising all the while, and Raven sets down a decorated box of entads on a desk. Juniper says that he will have warders look over the entads, and Masters says that he already has descriptions of each of the items. Masters wants his questions about Uther answered, and to Amaryllis's disapproval, Juniper indulges him, thinking that Masters would good to have as an ally. Juniper answers many of his questions, but a fair proportion of them are ones to which he doesn't know the answer either. Masters asks why Uther won so consistently. Raven disagrees with the notion of Uther's unbroken winning streak. Juniper says that the Dungeon Master presumably set things up that way per his unknown motivations. When Juniper says that he'll ask Uther about these things if he ever meets him, Masters asks Juniper to not allow Uther to deceive Raven. Juniper briefly tells Masters about Maddie. When the questioning is finished, Masters informs everyone present that he will be staying down in the village, something that Raven is not too happy to hear about. Raven complains about her father after he's gone, and Amaryllis tells her that her father died when she was two years old, and that it's better to have allies that one disagrees with than to have no allies at all.

Juniper changes the subject to the loot, and Bethel says that she has already looked the entads over and will ask Grak to do the same. When Grak does, Raven retrieves the miniaturised entads from the box, tapping them twice with a pair of tweezers from the box to grow them to full size. In the box are five suits of armor, two dozen weapons, and an abundance of assorted accessories. Some of the items are trash, but some of them are treasures. Of note are the Space Plate, the Gardner's Plate, Alvion's Vambrace, the Probability Blade, the Needler, the Ring of Upward Bliss, the Ring of the Broken World (all of which go to Juniper), the Pedant's Pendant (which goes to Amaryllis), and the Choker of Concordance (which goes to Grak). With the loot, Juniper is able to replace his armor and his swords, Solace gets some armor and a replacement staff that gives partial control of plants, and Bethel gets more powerful in myriad ways.

*Tiff, Reimer, Arthur, and Craig are ribbing Juniper about a glut of loot that followed a long absence of the stuff, wondering if he simply forgot to dole out appropriate loot to everyone's characters. Juniper covers for himself by saying that there are narrative-based reasons for why loot would be distributed unevenly relative to the challenges that a party of characters undertakes. Arthur mentions that Juniper used to distribute loot in a more game-like fashion until he and Juniper argued about why a necromancer would leave magic items on his zombies. Juniper tries to explain that he tries to compromise between keeping the game rewarding to play versus realistic, and Craig calls him again on forgetting to give out the loot.*

One of Juniper's fondest memories on Aerb were of figuring out what unknown entads did with Fenn and Grak, and he is a little resentful about having the knowledge delivered to him alongside the entads themselves. However, he is glad that he will be able to have the college experience at Sound and Silence with level-appropriate gear.

## Featured characters

* Juniper Smith
* Amaryllis Penndraig
* Figaro Finch
* Fenn Greenglass *(mentioned only)*
* Valencia the Red *(mentioned only)*
* Jorge Mascar
* Bethel
* Bursar of Sound and Silence *(mentioned only)*
* Speculator Masters
* Raven Masters
* Pallida Sade *(mentioned only)*
* Uther Penndraig *(mentioned only)*
* Oorang Solace
* Grakhuil Leadbraids
* Tiffany Archer *(flashback only)*
* Arthur Reimer *(flashback only)*
* Arthur Blum *(flashback only)*
* Craig *(flashback only)*

## Quotes

“It’s not free. You’re up to something here, I know you are, and our support isn’t unconditional, especially not after how your last two visits to athenaeums turned out. So far as I know, you’ve got the last living locus, you’ve got a variant non-anima, and you’re starting some kind of technological revolution, with unknown origins, using a newly minted kingdom of tuung, who are being aged up at ludicrous rates, through unknown means. There’s a bigger picture, and I want to know it. You asked for, quote, critical training, unquote, and I’ve done my best to provide it, but as a condition, I want to know the bigger picture, whatever it is.”

“I’m not sure that I like this negotiation. If we give you a part of the picture, you could always argue it’s not enough.”

“You could give me the whole picture. We’re talking about opening up one of your members, ideally one that’s trusted, to restricted magics. Sound and Silence has always played a little faster and looser with the rules than the others, because if someone goes rogue they can’t induct more rogue members, but still, this is me sticking my neck out for someone I really don’t have to stick my neck out for.”

—**Finch** knows some things, but **Amaryllis** is reluctant to tell him more.
“If your victimless crimes keep requiring me to spend Uniquities resources, I’m going to have to start charging.”

“As though a non-member polity could funnel money into Uniquities without a whole army of accountants and lawyers descending on us?”

—**Finch** wants to play hardball, but **Amaryllis** calls his bluff.
“You understand that the infernals can’t know about Valencia. Ideally, no one would. She’s the best weapon that anyone has ever had against the hells. It could provoke infernal unification.”

“I have more faith in tight lips on my side than on yours.”

—**Amaryllis** and **Finch** do not trust each other quite enough yet.
“Fine. I suppose I’ve already arranged it.”

—**Finch** concedes.
“Raven, my little bird, you’ve been through enough. You’ve done enough. Do you understand what it was like for me, as a father? Every week hearing some new thing that Uther and his Knights had done, some adventure they’d made it through by the skin of their teeth? And I know that I never heard the half of it.”

“I came through. We all did. The world is teetering on the brink, it’s always been teetering on the brink, whether we knew it or not, and it needs strong hands to keep it from falling over the edge. I can’t leave, I can’t quit. Not until we’ve secured the future.”

—**Masters** worries about **Raven**, perhaps too much.
“I am sorry. It was five hundred years at Speculation and Scrutiny, you have to understand that, and so many unsolved mysteries left behind in the wake of Uther’s disappearance, so many questions about my only daughter’s role in it all that -- it’s not an excuse, I can’t excuse myself, but I only wanted the truth of the matter.”

—**Masters** apologises, profusely.
“To answer the question, the Dungeon Master entity is, presumably, powerful enough that he can ensure a close win every single time, no matter what the odds seem like they should be on the face of it. Why he would choose to do that, I don’t really know, especially since it seems from where I’m standing that it was nothing more than an unusual form of extended torture.”

—**Juniper** answers Masters's question of why Uther won so consistently.
“I’ve always thought it better to have allies who disagree on what’s best for you than to not have allies at all. I might empathize more if he had the capacity to stop you in any meaningful way, but he’s helpless and burdened by forces completely out of his control.”

—**Amaryllis** sees Masters' point of view.
“But I like numbers-go-up. Who doesn’t like numbers-go-up?”

—**Reimer**, the eternal munchkin.
## Notes

* See List of entads for the full descriptions of entads obtained in this chapter.

### Continuity notes

* Juniper's fond memory of himself, Fenn, and Grak examining unknown entads is something that occurred in Chapter 35, Friendship is Magic.

### Real-world references

* A Skinner box is the behavioural scientist B. F. Skinner's Operant conditioning chamber.