@babiz Thank you kindly. The /var/log was empty except for the reboot; there were no past logs. That bugged me and I wondered if they were somewhere else I hadn't thought to look for.
I have wireshark, but honestly hadn't thought to try it while everything was flipping out.
As far as I can tell it looks as if the WAPs attempted to take over when something happened to PFSense. There was a cable modem reboot in there, too, which once triggered some strange IP issues. But without the log (and I was desperately trying to get everything back up) I've got nothing to go back and look at.
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my post, and point out ways I can in the future better analyze issues. That's a very welcoming approach you have there, and I'm quite thankful for it.
~J