It€™s getting late in the evening, and the party splits up.

Mr Harmonik, has a brief snail-call to Hans Crabmeister, and a large amount of waffle with prolific use of the word €œYa!€ coming down the snail. After managing to interpret him, Phil finally works out that he wants to acquire an item called the €œPandemonium Sapphire€ owned by a man named Rogatien Brazil who dwells in a building called the Tower of Swifts. Phil sets off towards it.

* * * * *

Meanwhile at AK Industries, Blotter and the quantum possibility of Taranis sit in his storage room overlooking the room containing the Ultimate Rift Phaser. Very few people are still here now, with just the quiet sound of keyboards tapping in distant wings of the building and harsh striped shadows crossing the floor where the lamps outside mix with the shutters on the windows. The silence envelops all.

* * * * *

In the record office where Maurice and Patricia shuffle through records, a psychic alarm spreads through their brains as their psy-snail has an incoming call. It suggests that any of them present should go to a meeting with Fernando and Nickelson and a few others at a secret location. The second they agree, the two suddenly vanish from the room as if they had suddenly just collapsed into nothing but dust.

* * * * *

The Tower of Swifts evidently was not named imaginatively - a huge ancient tower of crumbling limestone, seemingly too thin to be sound juts up to impossible heights. The crumbling holes in the wall seem to be perfect home for birds called night-swifts - a bird for which the name is pretty self explanatory and thousands of them seem to be constantly entering and leaving small holes in the stonework. Phil approaches cautiously and unslings his sitar and starts playing and begins to ascend the tower.

* * * * *

In AK, the shadows grow longer and Blotter finds the coffee machine doesn€™t work. A mouse scuttles across the floor and the quantum possibility of Taranis runs small electrical arcs down his lightning rod to entertain himself.

* * * * *

Maurice and Patricia appear in a whirl of thick dust and sneeze heavily. A wizard with dusty coloured robes and dusky coloured hair nods to you and then steps backwards into shadows and vanishes. Ahead of them is a round table - at it you can see Nickelson, Fernando and a collie-sized slender brown dragon with a serious expression. A fourth figure sits in shadow on the far side of the table.

The figure at the back of the desk speaks in a voice which sounds very familiar yet utterly unlike anyone they€™ve ever known. It also sounds a bit like there is a large bird in the back of the room somewhere in the blackness.
€œWelcome. Maurice. Patricia. I think it€™s time we all shared a bit of information€

* * * * *

Phil walks up the tower with ease - he finds two guards fallen asleep at the beautiful sound of his music, and proceeds through the door with ease. The next room he gently hops over a flamepit which snaps open like a trap in the real world, but it the trance of his music seems to be opening at a snails pace. A few rooms later, a maelstrom of minigun rounds hails towards him from automated turrets, but in his trance Phil brushes them aside like curtains and proceeds onwards.

* * * * *

Blotter and Taranis sleep on their chairs amidst the shadows.

* * * * *

Maurice€™s first response is €œWho are you?€
The figure laughs €œI think you can hazard a guess as to who I am. My friend here is Mr Kontan Krepitman€ gesturing the dragon. The dragon, as if to answer breathes outwards and where you€™d normally expect a lick of flame there is a small yet of popcorn which scatters across the floor. €œNice to meet you€ it replies with a rich voice that faintly reminds the two of Louis Armstrong.
Now returning the shadowed figure €œNow, if you wouldn€™t mind, please update me on all you have found€
The two fill them in on the details, omitting the part about their disguises.
€œInteresting work, and well done I must say - you are proceeding faster than I€™d anticipated. Now there are a few things to tell you. Firstly, one of my informants has acquired a piece of information for me - a short coded message. It states that the threat that comes to us all is from a king. Who this king is I don€™t know, but be on your guard.

Secondly I want to be updated regularly on any developments with this potential machine. I need to be ready to nullify any threat should it arise.

Lastly, be careful of assassins, I believe you met one already, but my sources revealed the price has been raised after you€™ve managed to remain below the radar for the last two days.

Any questions?€

* * * * *

Phil picks the lock on the last door and sees before him a pedestal topped with a huge sapphire. It seems to contain strange light within it, that gives off a faint feeling that it shouldn€™t be. Regardless, Phil clasps the jewel and turns around to leave to be confronted by a figure he had not heard. The figure is dressed in medieval garb and has a wry smile on his face. €œAh, so someone has finally managed to get up here! Bravo!€
Phil freezes, not least because the man seems to exist at the same speed as Phil himself in his enhanced state.
Tell you what €œYou can keep the jewel, and in ten days I€™ll decide the payment for keeping it. Nothing like I keep your first born or anything, just some task of no more than an afternoon and no more illegal than this little escapade€
Phil doesn€™t get a chance to state his opinion on this before a happy €œGood, it€™s agreed then! Now we better make this look convincing!€
Before he knows what happens, the man sends a blast of energy from his hand launching Phil through a stained glass window and scattering the night-swifts in fright. He falls about 30 stories, yet somehow lands with only minor bruises and cuts and no damaged equipment. Magic is probably at work. He gets up, dusts himself off and wonders whether to take the jewel to Crabmeister yet.

Bells toll midnight across the city.

* * * * *

A bell in AK wakes up Blotter. The URP is untouched, but worryingly, there is an open door in the room where there wasn€™t before.

END OF DAY 3