Not much happened for a long time, (Patreon)

so I'll just condense the highlights.  I couldn't go back into the scrying tower until I had figured out how to control the time slippage, so contacting anyone at this juncture was not going to be possible.  Instead I blindly apported random books from the small library.  Any that had their contents concealed by "Lorem ipsum" gibberish I carefully stacked inside the dolmen on a small rack that I constructed of sticks donated by the forest.

Books that I could read, I slogged through as best I could, then re-checked the stack of encoded books.  Sure enough, as I gradually learned more on various subjects (scrying procedures, scryspace manipulation, thaumaturgical mathematics, scry-orb maintenance, Imperial privacy laws & intelligence protocols, etc) more advanced books on those topics became legible to me.

The Ixies came back with news, or rather a lack thereof, concerning the people I had asked them to investigate.  Of Sheila na Gig there was no sign.  They found her cave easily, but it seemed to have been abandoned a long time ago.  Likewise they could find little evidence of the elf who I suspected was behind the Marten family's fortunes.  There was the enigmatic "Uncle Ash" who had operated a tavern in Percysthorpe, but this establishment had burned down around the same time O'Daisies Industries had taken over the area, and Ash had disappeared without a trace.

The shoe cultists found their way to the stone circle and were awed by the number of shoes lying around.  It took a bit of wrangling on the part of the forest to maneuver a bunch of irate rabbits into the area at the same time.

"Idolaters and litterers!" the rabbits condemned.  "How dare you worship the false god of footwear, and strew the forest floor with this trash!"

"Bucktoothed blasphemers!" the Children of Jerry retorted.  "How dare you refer to these holy relics as trash!"

I crouched in the grass atop the dolmen and concentrated on mushrooms as I watched the fight unfold.  The rabbits had superior weapons and superior zealotry, thus made short work of the shoe-worshipers - much to my disappointment.  I had hoped they would destroy each other, but the conflict was extremely one-sided.  Oh well, one enemy group destroyed wasn't a bad day's work..

"Now, bretheren, let us tear down this devilish temple!" the rabbits shouted after their victory.  "Leave none of these stones standing!"

Well, I couldn't permit that, so I stood up and started shooting.  A few of the rabbits escaped, and the forest deployed vines to drag away the bodies left behind, to fertilize whatever dank grotto wished to claim them.  I gave instructions that the way to my circle was to be barred to intruders henceforth, unless they knew the Sign of the Scissors which I had communicated to my cult followers.

I passed written messages by Ixie back and forth with Oak Marten, and occasionally received baskets of food as per our arrangement, but the rest of the time I spent in solitude and quiet study.  I'm not sure exactly how long this lasted.

One day I was interrupted by someone behind me saying "Excuse me, are you Lord Ramble?  My hairdresser told me to come see you."

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