Juniper ascends the Long Stairs.
Synopsis[]
In a flashback, Craig, Arthur, Juniper and Reimer start a game of Long Stairs.
Juniper, Fenn, Amaryllis, Raven, Grak and Bethel start ascending the Long Stairs. Bethel is strong enough to beat any threats they come across. At first they follow Fenn's luck intuition and have Grak scan every room they come to for Uther, and it leads them in circles. Next they try speeding through rooms, but they still return to copies of rooms they've been in previously.
Next, they pick doors more randomly, avoiding doors that Fenn's luck thinks bad, and doors that conflict with RDP. Eventually they find a dead soldier with a map and a list of more RDPs.
Juniper talks with Bethel about Uther.
Featured characters[]
- Lt. Ralkers (written report)
- Craig (flashback)
- Arthur Blum (flashback)
- Juniper Smith
- Arthur Reimer (flashback)
- Amaryllis Penndraig
- Pallida Sade (flashback)
- Grakhuil Leadbraids
- Raven Masters
- Bethel
- White Toad
- Fenn Greenglass
Notes[]
- The Terridoc linkages were first mentioned in Uskine Nervedah. They allow understanding and communicating almost any language and were held in trust by the Empire.
Acronyms[]
A variety of acronyms relating to the Long Stairs were introduced this chapter. They are reproduced below. Note that "FS" is Fel Seed.
- IP: Individual Phenomea, for LSP
- LSE: Long Stairs Entity
- LSP: Long Stairs Plan or Long Stairs phenomeon
- LSS: Long Stairs Sentient
- MAM: memetic and antimemetic
- NTM: new-threat mindset
- PP: Pervasive Phenomea, for LSP
- RDP: Results-driven protocol
- SC: sentient class for LSSs
- SM: stochastic modeling
- TFM: Total Fireteam Mortality