Run by Victor Greystone.  Some members know who he is, most don't, they don't
know each other.  Victor is trying to take over the Realm Thieve's Guild, thus
expanding his personal power tremendously.  

There's been this local thief who has been operating quite successfullly out 
from under the aegis of the Right Hand (ie; Thorn).  Victor has been looking 
for her, but hasn't been especially successful, particularly since he's been 
extremely busy running the Hand.  In particular, he's instigated a "turf war" 
against the Realm Thieve's Guild when the cease-fire was established, which 
has kept them busy.

Victor has been bringing RightHanders over to the Realm as bodyguards,
attaches, etc. in order to fight the Guild; he's been using them to ransack
shops in the Guild's name.  Recently, a contingent of them was killed,
rumour has it by an old man or a yong girl...

meanwhile, Victor contacted Barak, who had taken quite a liking to his niece
Joy (who is actually Thorn).  Victor promised Barak Joy, as well as a place
in the right hand and in the Greystone clan, as well as protection from the
Realm, *if* Barak helped him destroy the Guild.  Barak agreed, and is
currently on the Castle under an alias...Barak doesn't know Victor's
identity.

Victor brought along "Soth," a practicer of the forbidden arts, to place a
new-identity spell on Barak (essentially the same thing that was done to
Isachar).  This requires a large source of mana.  Mercy came along to 
take care of Joy (who insisted on being an ambassador; well, it *was* her
right, but...).  As it happens, though, Mercy also discovered some
discrepancies in the books that point to Victor embezzling funds.  These
were the result of Thorn's tampering with the books, having discovered them.
Thorn doesn't realize Victor is in charge; but she realizes he's in the Hand
and wants to find the boss and get them all off of her case.  (She also
wants to get Victor into trouble...)

Recently the Iron Gauntlet noticed signs that a thief had broken into a
number of places in the Castle.  Soth investigated, and found the same
aura-pattern that was indicative of the independant thief who had been
running around Clearstone Castle.  [sense impressions]  The pattern of
thefts were unusual, though:  very little of real worth was stolen BUT--
Joy's pendant turned up missing.  Storm Bluemist's jivatmaya turned up
missing.  A number of paintings disappeared from the gallery (all with a
feline association, although that isn't obvious) and turned up in various
Claspmen's rooms.  As far as the Hand is concerned, this thief is being 
ridiculous.

But imbedded in all the thefts are clues (which Victor hasn't yet
deciphered) to the fact that the Cat has returned to the living.
Mercy has Joy's pendant, which Thorn threw away...after he escaped from it.  
All files in the directory /mit/abstract/Archives/Old_castles, and all files
in any subdirectories thereof, and any materials in the "abstract" locker 
pertaining to the game "Castles in the Sky" as run for the MIT Assassin's
Guild in the Spring of 1989 are copyright to Andrea Brandford and David 
Policar and are not available for public use or viewing.