"...So that's where DeVil's been hiding."

Speaking of, when you glance up, you see a piece of graffiti: THE KING WILL COME THIS WINTER.

Great, awesome, she hates it.

"So we have two weeks. ...I'm not coming up with any better ideas than being at Lake Mullardoch to stop them from doing whatever they're planning on doing, which is, obviously, a terrible idea."

"I promised Ruby we'd deal with it but I have no idea how. She seemed-- freaked out, but it's of course ominous nonsense to her." Good for her!

"There's only one person I can think of who I would believe could pull off just stopping them and I'm still not sure how far we should trust him at all."

"Also I don't think he's particularly available right now." Seeing as how he left for Japan.

"If Jing Yi wasn't down for the count I'd want to ask him how he and Evie were planning to deal with Parker."

If there isn't a complicated double-crossing plot going on there, which quite frankly there's a good chance there is.

"I tried to ask Ruby if there were other people who got the same invitation, but she just went on about how they've got a really special bond, there's obviously no one else."

"Honestly, if we could be sure Evie was on our side, it turns out she can in fact control intelligent beings, and I'd be very surprised if that wasn't useful at all. But the fact that she can do that and said she couldn't makes it even less obvious that we should believe her about anything else."

"...I really hope Terrence didn't get one."

"Yeah, uh. That's kind of specifically who and what I'm worried about. He is-- very sympathetic to Roby, and to that worldview."

"...How badly do things go, do you suppose, if Terrence did get an invite and we tag along with him?"

"The answer is obviously 'very badly' but I'm wondering if it goes better or worse than simple crashing."

"Depends on what we do once we're there, I expect?"

"I-- I'm worried that him being around them isn't a good idea, to be honest."

"Randolph Carter said Roby was a 'sweetheart' and then he fell in with these-- occultist types-- and, well."

"Well, if he didn't get an invite, there's no trouble. And if he did -- I'm worried you'd have to tie him down to keep him from going."

"Which is an option if we need it, I guess."

"--Arguments for and against just telling the cops."

"Against, everyone involved in this has more money and more sway than we do, and we have no proof that whatever's happening at Loch Mullardoch needs intervening in that doesn't sound insane."

"I don't... have any arguments for."

Well, he is not a fan of cops in general, but... "We could physically stop Terrence if he's invited? I feel bad preventing a grown adult from associating with other like-minded adults but I don't think they exactly have Terrence's freedom or well-being in mind. The fact some people can apparently control intelligent beings seems... maybe relevant, I don't know."

Is it patronizing to suggest your friend is being brainwashed by magic? Maybe, but he's going with it anyway.

"We could physically stop Terrence if he's invited. We could crash the party and try to wreck whatever ritual setup they've got before it starts. We could...."

What would Joan say.

....she knows exactly what Joan would say. Joan would say that she doesn't like it but Inaaya already knows that, and she loves her and trusts her, and rituals in the middle of nowhere that you have to stop at any cost is the sort of thing they make explosives for.

"I'm afraid if I'm exposed to whatever horrifying ritual I'm going to be a useless case. On account of my delicate constitution."

"My main arguments for are that Roby is something resembling a fugitive right now, from the asylum at least, so there is at least one authority interested in his whereabouts, and that I expect a lot of deaths to result from this and I'm -- it's -- if society actually functioned it wouldn't be our jobs to stop that."

"...Dr Aarons. We should tell Dr Aarons about the note."

"........yes. Yes, we should."

"Sounds good to me... You guys know how I feel about the police in general and I won't bore you with it, but in this case I'm not sure they're not all going to get killed by a byakhee or whathaveyou. Defeating-- the main justification for dealing with them."

"We could too, couldn't we. Only edge we've got is that we know about them."

Sal isn't afraid of walking into a house of murderers in the middle of nowhere. Sal isn't afraid of a gruesome bloody death at the talons of an enormous beast. Sal isn't afraid of losing himself to an evil book. He isn't he isn't he isn't. He can't be or he's going to lose his nerve.