The Last Oddetsey

[steven_mcg]

After clearing the ridge, the huge floating castle comes into view - or what you presume must be it - while most of the hills here are fairly globular and undefined, this is a sheer pillar of stone rising upwards almost vertically. It is almost entirely covered with green, with the only clue to it's true identity being the peaks of a few spires piercing through the vines and creepers that have engulfed this place, however, you do note that the place seems remarkably intact. Unfortunately there is no conventional way up, as the place looks like it was meant to be accessed straight to the top.

Oh goody. Exercise. Even if I wanted to crawl up that cabbage-covered column, it'd take me till the end of the next universe before I reached the top!

George, stay ahead and clear me a flight-path. It's about time I started putting this new cane through its paces. Chopper mode and away we go!

[NWOWWE]

As Gaunt neared the door he could hear some muffled movement outside the room. Puzzled, he stopped where he was and waited. Next thing there seemed to be a bit of energy pulsing through the door.

Oh what the hell was THIS now?

Whatever it was, it didn't seem like anything good, so Gaunt sloshed his way back from the door, grabbed the mattress from his floating bed and ducked.

[alex_holt]

TWITCH

With the subsonic suggestions of the Night Pine ringing in his head, Twitch quickly locates the base where the spaceship is being held. Things appear exactly as they had been described, and as a plus note, they don't appear to be paying any attention to some non-sentient wild birds and winged creatures flying around. As King Industries is deemed a criminal organization, the chances are they don't want to draw too much attention to themselves.

LELAND and EUDIAL

Even as Leland jumps back, a hand print begins to glow red hot in the metal near the lock on the door. It soon turns to white hot, and small pieces of near liquid metal begin to fall away until a few moments later a flaming hand clasping the lock mechanism appears through the door, and the whole thing opens to reveal Eudial glowing orange with fire. The water floods out of Lelands rooms sending up plumes of steam around her feet even as she cools down.

VENGEANCE

With a whirring of helicopter blades from within his cane, Vengeance soon finds himself ascending the vertical faces of the rock the castle rests upon. It is utterly cloaked in plants, every nook and cranny is filled with creepers or small shrubs or tufts of grasses. At one point he catches the metallic gleam of what must have been the bay doors for aircraft to land in, but there is no way he could cut through without the use of the very cane he requires to stay aloft.

Eventually, he reaches the top of the rock and comes to the castle itself. He lands gently in the central courtyard, and from here can see the architecture of the building - it appears largely a hard stone with odd veins of some pale metal running through it, formed into something which resembles a fairly practical looking medieval fortress if they went back in and added some flying buttresses for effect. The courtyard itself is paved with the same fractal changing mosaic as the grand cathedral, except here, where weeds have established in the cracks the pattern has begun to flow around them as it alters the tide. There are several doors around the courtyard, although one of them is clearly the main entrance, while others seem to go to guest wings.

There is also a large cylindrical stone square in the middle of it, raised up to nearly height, with flowers growing round its base and 7 curious holes in the top - a central one that seems to have something lodged in it, and 6 at equal points around the outside which are shallower and apparently empty.

The whole place looks like no one has been here in a long time.

[NWOWWE]

As the water drained out of the room, Gaunt took in a deep breath and readied himself to lunge at whoever had broken through the door. The blazing light and subsequent sound of steam halted him in his tracks. It was Eudial. She was slowly returning to normal after blazing with fire. Gaunt stared warily at her. After a few moments he broke the silence.

"Hello," Gaunt said, trying to sound as composed and casual as he could. "Still hanging around this garish place as well I see. You might have noticed I've had some water issues with my room. I've been hoping to have a, shall we say, chat with the esteemed Dr. Seben about that. I'm not very pleased with him at the moment."

[steven_mcg]

With a whirring of helicopter blades from within his cane, Vengeance soon finds himself ascending the vertical faces of the rock the castle rests upon. It is utterly cloaked in plants, every nook and cranny is filled with creepers or small shrubs or tufts of grasses. At one point he catches the metallic gleam of what must have been the bay doors for aircraft to land in, but there is no way he could cut through without the use of the very cane he requires to stay aloft.

Eventually, he reaches the top of the rock and comes to the castle itself. He lands gently in the central courtyard, and from here can see the architecture of the building - it appears largely a hard stone with odd veins of some pale metal running through it, formed into something which resembles a fairly practical looking medieval fortress if they went back in and added some flying buttresses for effect. The courtyard itself is paved with the same fractal changing mosaic as the grand cathedral, except here, where weeds have established in the cracks the pattern has begun to flow around them as it alters the tide. There are several doors around the courtyard, although one of them is clearly the main entrance, while others seem to go to guest wings.

There is also a large cylindrical stone square in the middle of it, raised up to nearly height, with flowers growing round its base and 7 curious holes in the top - a central one that seems to have something lodged in it, and 6 at equal points around the outside which are shallower and apparently empty.

The whole place looks like no one has been here in a long time.

Ah, I can see he's being doing the castle up a bit Hm. I don't like it.

Let me guess. That great eyesore of concrete is where he wants me to...urgh, the very idea. So undignified - and more than a little gross. Well, there were always going to be caveats with me becoming housekeeper around here. So long as I have gloves, I suppose I'll be fine. Shudder.

George, pop inside and record me full schematics of the castle, top to bottom. Deathtraps included. I wouldn't put it past old Doomsy to leave me a few housewarming presents. Meet me back here when you're done. I want to take a closer look at what's in this overgrown garden ornament in the meantime.

[alex_holt]

MARISA AND AURELIA

As the pair assembles her Cappella themed army outside the base, they recieve an odd message via their communicators from the Botanist - he babbles a lot about rhododendrons, whether you can hurry up as his creepers are getting enough light through the shield and whether you can retrieve that Quercus parstemopris seed that Doomforall pinched off it at some point, before asking you to watch out for any interesting weeds in the compound.

With the group assembled, they begin their impromput capella concert, which is about as good as you would expect from a group of random strangers grouped into singing Capella with no notice whatsoever. However, there is no denying they do it with conviction. All the sniper robots have their eyes trained on this, and the disturbingly muscular Metapenguin, who introduces himself as Otto VonAukton waddles out holding one of the Chimeras on a particularly elaborate leash. He seems more confused than anything else, but suspecting a trap of some sort.

PROFESSOR VENGEANCE

George quickly returns, and with him displays full schematics of everywhere he could access - the rest appears to be clad in some super-dense material that his scanners couldn't penetrate. What is currently unlocked is the main living areas, and a small secondary control room. No traps were detected, although there was a scrambling field to make people ignore this place, but apparently Vengeance was programmed in as an exception.

The secondary control room only seems to have limited functionality - no weapons or more advanced forms of movement. Pretty much limited to the generic cruise speed movement, and various shielding systems are on automatic, plus the ability to query the computer for certain information. Vengeance is currently entirely locked out of any of the sublevels, which schematics seem to suggest contain the hangar, various libraries and studies and a teleportation system system.

Most notably, the power source of this place is so off the charts that George cannot measure it, to the point where it seems entirely surplus to requirements. At his best calculations, if you powered every system on every world that George's internal database knows about, the power consumption would for any meaningful reason essentially 0% usage.

TWITCH

Twitch flies worriedly over the crowd, but with the guards playing attention to the capella singing, it goes without a hitch - the remaining Chimera is sleeping, and none of the snipers seem to notice anything. However, when he reaches the innermost tower, there is a slight problem - although he had very clearly seen Otto at the gates, there is a second distinctive MetaPenguin here, slightly bigger than Otto if anything. It appears there was a slight inaccuracy in the information the Old World's Society had - Otto has a Sister...

[kodster]

Not what she had expected, but burning through a door armoured like that had to be worth something. Eudial grinned and yanked the door open. And liquid poured out...

Water?!

The grin vanished almost instantly. Eudial didn't like water. Well, not when she was burning with the intensity of a million stars. For a moment, as the water splashed about her ankles, she wore a panicked expression, and she danced a bit like a retard trying to avoid it. However, it was her mind that cooled off first.

Turn your power off, you fool.

It wasn't what she wanted to do; enemies could be behind the door. But she had no chance fighting those who wielded oceanic powers. Regrettably, Eudial stopped burning, and just like that, the water wasn't an issue anymore. She cautiously peered into the room, ready to attack again in need be...

...and saw Gaunt just standing there, dripping. Eudial stared. What was with his skin??? It was like he had an animal's hide... except... humans didn't usually have that technique.

"Hello, still hanging around this garish place as well I see. You might have noticed I've had some water issues with my room. I've been hoping to have a, shall we say, chat with the esteemed Dr. Seben about that. I'm not very pleased with him at the moment."

Eudial's face split into a cruel smirk; she couldn't help it. She was proud to have wasted that trashy man completely. She hastily rearranged the smirk into a blank, airy sort of expression.

"Yes... I was not very pleased with him, either," said Eudial. "In fact, we had quite the disagreement over your location. At one point I think he had me convinced you had gone for a little stroll. I suppose that was him that locked you in here, yes?

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you though. Your wish for a chat can't be granted as I got a little... shall we say, vociferous with him... as you can plainly see." Eudial indicated the body of Seben. "I don't suppose it would do for any of his colleagues to find him here, so I suggest we do something about the situation. Then we can find the other member of our escapade.

In any case, I would not trust a damn thing any of these people say. I trust you feel the same after your experience here, surely?"

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt shook his head.

"No, not in the slightest. He claimed I didn't meet their qualifications. He then decided to drain me completely and flooding the room was a rather desperate attempt to stop them. It seems to have worked... somewhat." Gaunt indicated his skin.

"In any case, I'm glad to see he's been dealt with. Well done. In return let me give you some advice: as long as we're in here or anywhere near these Psychic folks you'll want to keep up a strong mental block. I'm not sure if they have tongue-twisters where you're from, but I find them to be especially effective. It's not absolutely foolproof, but I was able to force someone out of my head at least twice with some great effort."

Gaunt then looked back at the prone carcass of Dr. Seben and smiled.

"Perhaps there's a supply closet or something we can stuff him in for the time being. No doubt they'd find him eventually unless we could vaporize him, but somewhere out of the way. It seems rather cliche, but there doesn't seem much else to do with him."

[steven_mcg]

George quickly returns, and with him displays full schematics of everywhere he could access - the rest appears to be clad in some super-dense material that his scanners couldn't penetrate. What is currently unlocked is the main living areas, and a small secondary control room. No traps were detected, although there was a scrambling field to make people ignore this place, but apparently Vengeance was programmed in as an exception.

The secondary control room only seems to have limited functionality - no weapons or more advanced forms of movement. Pretty much limited to the generic cruise speed movement, and various shielding systems are on automatic, plus the ability to query the computer for certain information. Vengeance is currently entirely locked out of any of the sublevels, which schematics seem to suggest contain the hangar, various libraries and studies and a teleportation system system.

Most notably, the power source of this place is so off the charts that George cannot measure it, to the point where it seems entirely surplus to requirements. At his best calculations, if you powered every system on every world that George's internal database knows about, the power consumption would for any meaningful reason essentially 0% usage.

Cruise control and shielding? That's it? Hmph. Ruddy cheek. According to His Doominess, I can't even be trusted with a water pistol around these parts. Still, at least I know what's what around here now and I can still get the thing moving again. Very good work, George. Very thorough.

I think we'll leave the mystery of the powerhouse power source for now, don't you? Too many mysteries around here as it is. First I want to examine that cylindrical stone wotsit in the garden and see if I can't see what's been lodged in it already.

Then I propose we pop along to the control room and see about taking off. You're a fairly advanced piece of tech, George. With a little help from my tools, you should be able to interface with the computer directly. That might open up some more of the flight controls, as well as some of the more deeply encrypted databases.

I know I wouldn't mind asking it for a little history on this place and why I'm not allowed near all the fun stuff.

[alex_holt]

EUDIAL AND LELAND

Leland locates what appears to be the supply closet, which has a sizable pile of boxes at the rear that are big enough to contain the late Dr Seben. They appear to contain the remnants of what presumably are vital supplies for the running of a psychic organization such as adult magazines, jars of raspberry jam and dreamcasts. There are plenty of other items round the storeroom in general that might be worth taking: various medicines and mineral infusions, bandages, a tank of leeches and an old MAGNET-TOES brand psyproof helmet.

Eudial also finds a rare candy.

VENGEANCE

After managing to find a patch where it wasn't entirely covered in lichen, Vengeance examines the stone - it is of a type that he has never seen before, seemingly infused with tiny polyhedral metallic crystals of gold, silver and copper coloured minerals, but it does appear to be originally natural. How it is shaped is intriguing though - it is slightly concave on top, and the outer holes appear to channel back to the central one. The item lodged inside it is, apparently, a very peculiar acorn, which seems to switch between some sort of phasing state and some sort of super-hard state. According to Georges readings, nothing that Vengeance has about his person at the minute would do any notable damage to either the stone or the acorn.

Meanwhile, George interfaces with the computer, and manages to get a few of the lesser systems up and running - orbital flight, both internal and external sensors, activating a Golem chef and his ingredient replicator and a temperature controlled pool.

George also locates some files that Doomforall seems to have left for him to read: a thorough document concerning the rift energy that Doomforall used as his powerset; how it works, its origin, it's applications, it's limitations (very few), however, it is the very last section of the document that gets Vengeances attention.

"All my research and study points to one indisputable fact: that taking the power of the Rift from the Marranach was the greatest mistake any being in the history of the multiverse has ever made. My mistake. He was a being who was outside the multiverse, outside any comprehension and I, in my ignorance and in my folly, thought that I had impressed such a creature with my audacity and I had somehow earned the right to that power. I was a child to think that. He rules in the space between Multiverses and longs to expand his domain further into their light - pouring his realms into them like cold water onto a fire to reclaim them. In my stupidity, I am the beach-head - by bringing the rift here in myself I have given him a way in...

I will retire from using the power of the Rift as much as I can, but with this power I cannot shirk responsibility. Worlds may die from both my action and inaction. Eventually, something will happen and he will break in. I have begun to look into ways to escape this cruel fate I have wrought on this universe and the others, but it is a long shot at best.

I have already acquired the item from the Botanist and I returned Vengeance to his home world again, though he will not remember it, he may be the key to all this. If all else fails, at least this Fortress of mine may finally get to live out it's intended function..."