The Last Oddetsey

[alex_holt]

After carefully transporting the frail Anjushree to their own ship, Professor Vengeance heads over to the bridge and with a quick bit of piloting, the great silver vessel begins to descend back to the surface of the planet below them.

THE CASTLE

As they get within range of the castle George automatically teleports Anjushree to the medical facilities where a rudimentary hard-light medical hologram begins to treat the Griffon for starvation and lack of oxygen in a medically induced coma. It'll be a little while before there will be any proper conversations being had there....

Vengeance takes the body of Doomforall, and, as instructed, places it upon the dais that houses the strange seed. For a few minutes nothing seems to happen, and the whole affair seems anti-climatic, the cobbled courtyard and it's myriad of plants seem just as silent and lifeless as they were before. Then, suddenly, lights begin blinking on across the citadel, the heavy sound of bolts sliding across and unlocking previously secret sections of the castle. The whole place comes alive. George chimes in over the com-link to announce a constant stream of updates as section of the castle open up that neither had discerned were even there previously...

LABORATORIES: OPEN
RESTRICTED LIBRARIES: OPEN
ALCHEMICAL LABS: OPEN
MENAGERIE: OPEN
ASTRAL PROJECTION APPARATUS: OPEN
ARMOURY: OPEN
VAULT LEVELS 1-4: OPEN
LONG RANGE TRAVEL: OPERATIONAL
LONG RANGE TELEPORT: OPERATIONAL
ARBORETUM: OPEN
TROPHY ROOM: OPEN
ACCOUNTS OPENED FOR ALL PARTY MEMBERS: 100,000 credit allowance deposited in each account
CINEMA: OPEN
DEFENSIVE AUTOMATONS: ACTIVE

George continues to reel off an increasingly long list of minor rooms, however, there are three rooms which remain locked down, and nothing that Vengeance or George seems to be able to do opens them: the Fifth Level Vault, Doomforall's Study and the Engine Heart.

WELCOME PROFESSOR VENGEANCE, THE CASTLE IS NOW AT YOUR DISPOSAL

In all the chaos of new rooms and secret doors opening up everywhere, it's a little while before anyone notices that where Doomforall's corpse had rested earlier, a thick trunked oak is now wrapped around the pedastal with its roots grasping into the rock nearby. The body itself is not visible.

A FEW HOURS LATER

Anjushree has recovered enough to talk thanks to some new regeneration vats that were unlocked as the Castle came fully online, and the Griffon is currently trying to preen green gunge out of it's feathers in a fairly indignant way. Aurelia fills Anjushree in on their story thus far, and then asks Anjushree to fill in the other side of the story.

The Griffon's voice is notable different now, apparently that strong Griffonic accent is natural, but generally covered up and Anjushree now speaks in an altogether different clear and precise voice. The story is essentially that Anjushree detected Doomforall's accident from shrer own dimension, and, believing that being a universal level master of shields and other protective
magic, decided to travel to Earth-0 to try and avert the catastrophe. Anjushree was responsible for assembling the beings holding together the shield, and contributing the unifying spell from the space pod. With you going up and defeating the rift on Doomforall, and the pods air running out of air, that seemed like work done.

What is more concerning is the elaboration of earlier... when Anjushree came to this world, a quick spell to detect Doomforall and the rift bought up his location certainly, but also three others as well...

Before this can be over, you'll need to track down those other three and end them too...