[piosenniel]

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your soul it will creep . . .
. . . Step outta line,
The Man come and take you away . . .

The last strains from Buffalo Springfield come to a scratchy halt as Birdie took the 45 carefully, with fingers touching only the rim and edge, off the turntable and inserted it into the parchment sleeve. 'Sigh, cd's are nice, but these dusty discs have a really full character . . . ' she remarked fondly.

'OK, I'm with you, pio.' she says. 'What's the plan?'

'Well, I don't exactly have a Plan plan, I just thought in the spirit of things we'd improvise. Our first thing we need to do, though is bolster up the courage of C7A. She's just written me a very long note explaining what a respectable hobbit she is, and how Mithadan is some very important Lord of sorts, and how she wants to advance among the dead, and can't afford to offend the powers that be - read Mithadan here. Of course her syntax and sentence structure were much better done than the brief synopsis I just gave you.'

'Hmm!' replied Birdie ' I think she needs the same push out the door that Gandalf gave Bilbo the reluctant thief.'

'Great minds think alike!' exclaimed piosenniel. 'Besides, I was sort of half planning for her to ply those hobbity thief traits. & I also had plans for the Massive Tome to figure into the plan at some point.'

Night was drawing near, groups of straggling party-goers were seen settling in for rounds of stories by the bonfire and the occasional hot chocolate with marshmallows or draughts of what ale was left. Birdie handed pio some black grease paint to paint both their faces and each donned a black beret. Steering clear of the bright flames of the fire they set out in search of C7A, whom they found sitting at the back of a group of hobbits, in the shadows, hoping not to be noticed. Putting an arm through each of hers, and clamping a firm hand over her protesting mouth, they dragged her gently to a stand of rocks not too far away.

'Child', whispered piosenniel in her ear.'I have an inducement sure to make you change your mind about coming with us. Treasure!'

'Treasure!!' squeaked Child, removing the muffling hand from her mouth. A sudden gleam came into her eye. 'What exactly do you mean?'

'Well, three things actually,' replied pio thinking fast.'1.) I have enough silver pennies in this bag here to pay off the postage plus interest for all of the Shire. It's yours if you come with us. 2.) I've found a publisher for your Massive Tome - prepared to pay handsomely for the rights to printing it - red leather cover, gold lettering, your name in big, big letters. 3.)Birdie and I are prepared to go to each thread you make a reply to and enter into long debate with you until you've become a Ghost Prince of Cardolan, and beyond. Now how does that sound?'

C7A furrowed her brow and went deep into analysis of the problem.

In the darkness, piosenniel's elven eyes could see Birdie rolling her eyes at the promises made. Birdie hissed quietly at her 'You're not going to tell her *where* you got those pennies, are you?! I saw you wiping the mold off them just before you came to get me! Don't you think HE'll miss them?!'

'I'll deal with that later -- I think I have a few more Ages left in me. Some plan will come along!'

'Well, Child, you with us?'

A reluctant hand reached for the greasepaint and the beret offered; the other, more insistant hand grabbed the sack of pennies and secured them in the waistband sash of her pants.

Standing in a tight circle, and placing hands on each other's shoulders they swore to keep the rest of the party safe from random generated events. Tightening the black leather vambraces on her arms, and securing her bow to her back, pio stated firmly: 'Let us hunt some lordling!'

'Yessss' cried Birdie, Child, shaking her head bemusedly muttered -'You 2 have seen the movie far too many times!!'

::Later, down the trail toward the bar . . .::

'Just how important and powerful is this Mithadan' said pio to Birdie. 'Beats me!' came the reply.

In the trailing darkness, Child sighed, rolled her eyes at the folly of this venture, and, trusting in the Hand of Providence, hoped the consequences of 'evil' by choice would not be too disastrous.