Dick swore an oath.  And when you are a doctor, an oath means something.  When you are a magician, an oath is a binding contract between you and the universe.  And when you are a magical doctor, an oath, ah, you get the gist of what I am saying.
To do no harm.   Dick Dante would not harm his patient.  And like it or not, the meta psychotic Pantheon was his patient.       This is a classic definition of a dilemma.    As the Master of the Hunt, Dante is to hunt and destroy those that enter the Humurru state.    As a Doctor, Dante is to heal.   
So you see, two opposed paths.     Which is why I said it’s a dilemma.  Cause that is what dilemma means.   Something cut in two.    Pure brilliance.  Which is why I am the Game Master, and you are not. 

So Dick does what he feels is right.  He designs a spell to help him perform meta surgery.  He will surgically cut out the contagion.   Dr. Dante will magically remove the meta powers from his patient.
He goes to his books.  He goes to the books of the Black Abby.  He thinks he can create the formula for an abjuration based spell.  He needs to focus the power by use of his intent.  He needs mithril to forge a scalpel.  And phlogiston to cauterize the wound. 

The formula is written, now to secure mithril.  He knows he can mine it, but that could take too long.   He opens a door to the Dreamworlds to bargain with the T’cho T’cho.

Ever see the Lord of the Rings?  Yes you did, it’s this generation’s Star Wars, but will a better set of sequels.    Imagine a whole race of Gollum’s, each crafty, nasty and a voracious merchant.  That is a pretty good description of the T’cho T’cho.   

  Dante walks to the Dreammoon.   He meets up with the T’cho T’cho.   They surround him, and Dante prepares a spell to defend himself.    The T’cho T’cho suspect an attack, and jump him.  Dante casts a shower of sparks spell and they flee.  He grabs two mithril daggers that were dropped and goes leaves.
He opens a door to his room in the Abbey and goes to make tea.  He has been gone for 9 hours.   Sister Medea yells at him that he made a terrible mistake.   She says that the T’cho T’cho will never forgive him for stealing their stuff, as greed is their greatest achievement, and he will never be safe.  And since the Abby Shelters him, they will also be targeted.

So after a bathroom break, he goes back.   He seeks out some Tcho T’cho, they ambush him and a fight breaks out.   After a bit they realize that he is trying to make right.  They bargain and settle on taking his goggles and began negotiations for mithril.

They offer him 50lbs for the secret name of the Red King.  He doesn’t know who or what that is, and turns it down. 
He bargains them down to 1 ½ pounds for a few healing scrolls and potions.   The deal is made and he goes home satisfied.
Sister Minerva offers to have the mithril tested by an alchemist.  It turns out to be sour deal.  They gave him ectoplasm that resembled mithril.   Dante is pissed.
So back to the DreamWorlds he goes.   They laugh at him and he gets madder.   When he insults their trading agreements, they seem to get a bit pissed themselves and offer an arbitration.  They take Dante deep into the Dream moon to meet “he who cannot be described.”
Dante cannot help but be a bit scared.  The T’cho T’cho even seem a bit reverent.   He is taken to a large chamber which is half filled with the deepest shadows.  A voice, a whisper asks him what he wants.

Dante cannot see into the dark, and that pleases him.   He tells He Who Can Not Be Described what transpired.    It whispers back, “a fair deal was made.  You gave in good faith, and they gave in good faith.  You never asked for True Mithril.  You are a mage, you know the value of exact words.    Go and negotiate a new deal.”
Dick seems a bit pleased that the trading is not over, and even seems to like the unseen being.   He thinks he offered him a bit more knowledge than he expected.   Feeling like he now knows how to deal with the T’cho T’cho, he starts to feel a bit more confident.

When he got back to the lunar surface, he noticed that the moon has crossed the horizon, and is now below.  He is no longer in the Dream World, but the Realm of Nightmares.    The T’cho T’cho are again laughing and attack him.    Floating in the sky is Dr. Nadir, still in the body of Rita Goldberg.     Dante is confused, as he thought Nadir recovered his form.

Thinking quickly, he traces a magic circle in the lunar sand, and pulls out his zippo.   The T’cho rush him and he dodges.  He flicks a shower of sparks, but only the one INSIDE his circle are harmed.

He breaks his circle, and tries again, sending fire and smoke everywhere.   The cowardly T’cho T’cho run.   The Illusion of Dr. Nadir melts and instead is the form of a human wearing a scarecrow costume.  He has seen this before, outside his home in Portland, and outside the gates of the Black Abby.  He doesn’t know who they are, but even the Sisters fear them.    It waves a Daven feather and casts a spell using the true name of Dick Dante.  Dick tries to blast the black artist and fumbles the spell.  He fractures EVERY bone in his left hand.   The pain is incredible, but he uses his willpower to stay focused.   The black artist then casts the spell again and while the pain is vast, nothing seems to happen.   Dick sprays the magician with sparks, killing him.   
Dick remembers his oath, and tries to save him but it’s too late.  He is burnt to death. 
Dick then becomes aware of a presence.  A powerful presence.   An archetypical presence.   Something is watching from the shadows.   Something big. Something bad.   A predator.   Holy crap, Dick realizes that, he on the moon, in the Realm of Nightmares, he is about to be attacked by the Big Bad Wolf.   
At first he thinks it’s funny. The Big Bad Wolf.  Then he realizes that this is one of the first fears of man kind.  The progenitor of monsters.  This is bad.  This is Fenrir bad.   He knows he cannot win. He uses the silver key to summon a door and leaves. 

Unknown to Doctor Dante, Twat,  the T’cho T’cho who speaks English and was chief negotiator who screwed over Dick saw the silver key.   He pledged an oath to some unpronounceable god, one with long phallic tentacles and a cult or two over in New England, to steal that Key and slit the throat of the one who is using it.  He then, for shits and giggles, said he would then fornicate with the throat hole.   
The T’cho T’cho are shitty like that.

Dick was up in the morning.  Hehe, a dick joke. I bet you didn't expect that in the first sentence, did you?

He had a good breakfast with the entire coven.  Again Sister Minerva asked him how he was going to deal with Pantheon.    He said with a healing hand.   She looked displeased.

   Dick went down.   Hehe.   

He went down the graveyard and checked out the sights.   He was a young girl, Ophelia about to break a honeycomb.  He went to her and she got scared and ran off.

He talked to Sister Minerva about the girl, as Dick had never seen her before.    The nun explained that the Gray Lady sometimes has young orphan girls come to the Abbey in their times of need.   It’s how most of the nuns arrived.   

Dick then went to have a robe fashioned.    The good ladies of the Black Abbey are nothing if not good with a needle and thread. 

He then went to study in the library.  He had his lunch there, to the dismay of Sister Alicia.    The Bree sandwiches, which are a delight, can leave grease on parchment.

The hours went by rather fast and Ophelia came running in, knocking over books and papers, and dropped off the finished robe.

Dick asked Sister Minerva if Ophelia could serve dinner tonight.   Sister Minerva, as she usually does whenever Dick speaks to her, gave a displeased look.


Dinner was lovely.  It was roast beef, dipping and wine.  It’s traditional to serve red meat the day before a hunt.    The 12 nuns each gave a toast, and with each toast, a large slug of wine was had.

Ophelia was not at dinner.


  Feeling dizzy from the wine, Dick asked Sister Tess and Sister Minerva to watch while he cosmically gleaned where the young orphan was.  She was in a movie theater eating a large box of jelly babies.   Happy that she was ok, Dick changed for bed.    After all he was to wake at midnight to begin producing the orgone necessary to charge the effects of the Wild Hunt.

Sister Tess gave Dick a snuff box of powder.  She said it would help his stamina.  She smiled.  Dick blushed.

   Dick slept like the dead.  When he woke, he noticed his beard was fuller.  He went to open his door, it was locked.  And his Silver Key was gone. 

Enraged, he blasted the door open and found a spent Hand of Glory.   He figured he must have been asleep for days.  He screamed for Sister Minerva and Sister Edith came running.  She was frightened.  Dick yelled until Sister Minerva came and bid him a fond farewell.

   And behind her was Dick Dante!

Or that mischievous fairy Robin Good fellow, or Puck, in the form of Dick Dante.  He was laughing.


Sister Minerva said that Dick was not performing his duties at the Wild Huntsmen property so a new Master had to be picked.    And   Puck fit the bill, as none of the other Nuns would know it was a switch.    He was escorted out of the Abby and to the airport by invisible huntsmen.   


Dick was pissed.