The fact that Sari Frame's efforts toward securing the Dungeonmaster position would ultimately pay off seemed obvious to me from around the middle of October. Jon Beyon's idea, which she passionately supported, resonated well with more than an overwhelming majority of the Caucus. Even those who had been supporting Fenton, including Cromme and Meris, were enthusiastic about this innovation.

Not long after Jon Beyon's presentation, Cray Fenton had heard about everything, and called me to a private conversation, where I explained everything about Jon Beyon. Realizing that opposing Beyon would be futile, and I'm sure he realized this, Fenton gave quite a pause of silence before admitting, "I'll have to try this at some point."

So Beyon's idea was popular, and getting moreso at an unstoppable pace. And Fenton had, for the most part, fallen silent over the Public Section of the Ticketer. Doing so, especially during this most crucial stretch of time before the election of the Dungeonmaster position, was definitely a sign of the impending inevitable outcome. A few days later, Fenton told me, along with Cromme and Meris, that if Frame emerged victorious, that he would conform to the wave of progress, especially with Beyon's invention.

That, however, was on the last day of October.

On Sunday, November 1, in the Arturian Realm, in one of the small towns of one of the counties in Northern Cresca, a small band of questors, led by an avatar cast by the new Member and Cabotton freshman, Carly McNauten, carried out an objective to steal by stealth a bounty coffer from an equally sized and opposing faction. One of the accomplices of that group disguised himself as the leader of the opposing group, slipping in and taking the coffer. It was an easy win for Carly's group but, from the viewpoint of the opposing faction, too easy.

One of the Members behind the opposing faction claimed that the Member from Carly's faction had gained access to the key used by the opposing faction Member to gain unauthorized access through the console to the opposing Member's avatar, in other words, hijacking another Member's avatar, which is the highest possible offense in the Third Level Society. The quest was carried out at around 2:30 in the morning in our time, after all. But that alone was not evidence to suggest that the avatar was "stolen" rather than just Carly's accomplice's avatar well-disguised.

Nevertheless, Prefect Sarah Paer was informed, and, in response, stepped in and temporarily blocked access to not only Carly's avatar, but to the avatars of all the accomplices in her group. Over the course of Monday and Tuesday, Sarah went through and scanned the algorithm activity logs of each avatar, releasing each one at a time when the avatar was determined innocent. Meanwhile, Sarah also checked the avatar of the Member who claimed such the avatar was stolen, but did so without locking his avatar. In the end, it was determined that no avatar key was stolen. But Carly, outraged by this, took a formal complaint to Bookkeeper Robert Hughes.

Robert Hughes is a product of incumbent Dungeonmaster Koby Breen's tenure, but to say that he is a "yes man" to Sari Frame may very well be an understatement. Hughes determined that the Prefect, in this case, was completely within her rights to carry out the investigation against Carly McNauten. And then Sari Frame, on Thursday, proposed yet another amendment to the Code requiring every Prefect to carry out as extensive of an investigation against any entity even remotely suspected of avatar key theft, which, by the way, has never happened in our Society since its founding.

This was an amendment to the Code to which I strongly oppose. But furthermore, making such a statement in this crucial week when you are a Dungeonmaster candidate was an especially poor move for Sari Frame.

And how right I was regarding that latter speculation.

Cray Fenton re-emerged valiantly onto the Ticketer Public Section, calling Sari Frame's proposal an absolute outrage. "This Code is an instrument of micro-management designed for individuals, like Sari Frame, who wish to implement measures of absolute control over an organization disguised as measures for the betterment of the Members that the organization serves. We must stop this madness. We must repeal the Code!"

Between Thursday and Friday, Fenton made more similar rants, stating that while the Code was initially designed to prevent favoritism among the Prefectdom, it was unnecessary. He further elaborated that simply the presence of the Caucus and Bookkeeper, the latter of which Fenton publicly stated he intends to have replaced, was sufficient to serve as a balance against such favoritism.

While, again, I do not favor the amendment proposed by Frame this week, I believe that Fenton was, perhaps, a bit radical on his stance. Last night, though, it became clear that my sentiment was not shared by everyone in the Caucus. Of the current standing figure of 616 Members, 589 of them voted. Of those 589, 292 went to Sari Frame while 297 went to Cray Fenton.

We shared a consolation dinner at the Slack last night, where Frame and Fenton gave the traditional acts of mutual respect. After that, Fenton invited me, Cromme, Meris, and Beyon to a private meeting in the University Library Cafe, where I presumed Fenton would be sharing with us his plan for next year as the new Dungeonmaster. The conversation here, however, was primarily focused on Jon Beyon.

"I will admit that I used to be a little hesitant with your new radical invention," Fenton said to Beyon. "I worried that it would ruin the integrity of the structure and function of our Realm and questing as a whole. But then I finally took your prototype, as I promised, and gave it a try. The only thing I have to say is that this will definitely be one of the greatest enhancements the Society has seen thus far." We were drinking hot chocolate, so Fenton brought our cups to a toast and ended with this: "By this time next year, every Member will be using your model."

In all honesty, I found it strange for Fenton to bring this up at our private meeting and not at the big consolatory dinner at the Slack. Perhaps he was afraid of some sort of political backlash, especially from Sari Frame and her supporters.