The Synodiporia Psychic Network

[And psychic protection is go for good measure.]

I'm sure the lot of you heard Raidou's warning that the Illuminants have found a way to tether themselves to Liminal Space.

For those of you fortunate enough to not know what that means, the Illuminants are powerful magical parasites that we first encountered in a place called Dolorosa several years ago. They have a nasty habit of possessing some poor magically gifted bastard and sucking them dry, while wreaking absolute fucking havoc on the magical balance of the land around them. In Dolorosa, they spawned a plague of curses and a plague of dragons. In Misericordia, it was just the dragons that we witnessed, though gods alone know what other hell they unleashed afterward.

They managed to break into Liminal Space the second time we were in the world that served as their playground, but our hosts weren't inclined to share, and before now they've not shown a knack for leaping between worlds under their own power - visions of dubious provenance notwithstanding. If they've figured out how to ride the Trumps' coattails - or manage to take over Liminal Space - that's bad fucking news for the next world we encounter, to say nothing of our own homes.

Which brings me to the point of this little attempt to reach out. I think that if we can yank them all the way through into Liminal Space, we can temporarily cut them off from the majority of their power, and kill them both here and in their own world before they can find some other place to play the parasite.

If you're willing to help with the summoning, or to travel by Bridge to break their places of power while we've got them in a trap, then tell me what you have to offer. If you're not, then stay well clear - we don't need any unexpected nooks and crannies for them to ooze into.

Some of you might remember that a little more than a year ago, Lupa - a Traveler who's no longer with us, to head off the twenty identical questions - organized a number of us who were skilled with portals in an attempt to return to a previous Jaunt world. An attempt that was ultimately unsuccessful, to our great disappointment.

It turns out it is possible to return to the worlds we've previously visited, simply much more difficult than any of us had imagined at the time. Between our return from Purgatory and our departure to Albion, a small group of us made the trip to Belljar Island - three of us who'd been there before, and one who hadn't. We've not yet determined if someone capable of creating the portal can target a world they've not personally visited, but it is at least possible to bring along a passenger who's never set foot on that world.

I wouldn't recommend making the attempt if you're not reasonably confident of your ability to bridge the gap between Jaunt and Walkabout by both portal and telepathy, or of making your first attempt without someone on hand who you know can pull it off if you can't. If we're lucky, the failure state will be no effect at all, but that's a dangerous assumption to make.

On that note, I'm intending a short trip before our next Jaunt, to arrange for some supplies that can only be found on worlds that have reached what Earthly Travelers call the 21st Century. If you have something you need and are capable of not standing out like a walking inferno, I can accommodate a several passengers.

This is certainly the clearest message we've had from our delightful hosts in quite some time. Maybe they actually intend to make us aware of which of them is winning after all, instead of leaving us to guess and grope after everything.

Tell me, I'm curious: was it the intent of our Investigators that the Hermit should win, or was it just left to chance?