The Last Oddetsey

[alex_holt]

THE CASTLE: AURELIA and the Spanish Inquisition, PLAYZOOKI, EUDIAL, PROFESSOR VENGEANCE, MARISA, EPSILON and PHANTASMIC SLAMMER, plus Anjushree and Sally Streater

While the team is going about their business aboard the giant floating castle, lights begin to blink on across switch boards - sensors trip across various energy and thaumatological spectrums. George focuses takes the datastreams, and as soon as he analyses what they mean, alarms echo throughout the castle, and a number of layers of shielding spring up, but not quite in time to block a pulse of energy that entirely knocks out all teleporter systems, both for the Castle itself and for those aboard it...

A loudspeaker blares, and all those aboard the castle can hear it - "Greetings Current Owners of the Castle of Doomforall - we have you surrounded - hand over the last Rift Wielder and we can end this now with no one getting hurt." - the voice is very much like Vengeance...

As the party look out through the window they glimpse the forces now arraying against them - several sky barges, a dragon, a number of wizards flying through various forms of flight, a large flying battleship studded with dozens of very large guns, plus a number of smaller landing shuttles and a small squadron of figures riding various winged creatures. All wearing the colours of PTT Industries, or with their logo upon it...

Particularly noticable are the big shield busting canons being manouvered in to place.

George alerts all those inside that they do have the firepower to burst holes in the shields big enough to land people in. He can provide further tactical information as required.

OUTSIDE THE CASTLE: LELAND, CLEO, TWITCH and KHLOE

Something is happening at the Castle - George is entirely out of communication and they find themselves entirely unable to teleport. They are stuck outside, although they do have a sizable amount of money on them.

Leland and Cleo recieve a message from PTT "We understand getting the device requested has been taking up your time, but should you wish to go another route, we are engaging in a large scale defensive action and we could use some talented individuals like yourselves to join in...

[NFX]

Twitch was, at that moment, blissfully unaware of the troubles befalling the castle and its occupants. The parrot was gliding over Melded, headed towards the farthest side of the city, scanning the ground for a neglected park. There was meant to be some kind of copper-coloured snake statue inside, and after a few minutes spotting people simply going about their day - with either a newspaper under one arm, or a dismembered arm concealed in a newspaper - he caught a glint of sunlight off in the distance.

Swooping towards it, weaving in and out of a few trees, Twitch came to land alongside the statue. It seemed harmless enough, so he took a hold of it...or at least he tried to. The smooth surface offered very little purchase, but he eventually managed to grip it by the tail end, and was able to carry it off with him without dropping it. Now all he needed to do was find a suitable body of water to deposit it into, and he could head back to the castle and forget about this whole business. He hoped.

[majinb]

"What was I thinking calling you the Spanish Inquisition?! 5-1!"

"is this the man you worked for water woman? the supposed older version of the vengeance you met here recently?"

[alex_holt]

TWITCH

Nearby, Twitch spies a duckpond, complete with several ducks larger than himself.

AURELIA
"That's 'im! Frell! Frell! Frell! You said we wud be safe here, but 'es come 'ere too! Me and me Mum are gunna be killed!"

THOSE INSIDE THE CASTLE
George announces that he has gained access to the armoury, enough to allow every Rift touched person there to go in and grab one main weapon and one side arm of their choice, but very limited time will mean that they have no time to inspect weapons, just go in and grab something of the vague description, like an oversized magic broadsword or a rapid fire freeze ray. Looking inside the room, it is decidedly TARDIS like, and there is enough firepower here to equip decent sized militaries, but it's presented more in a "being stored out of the reach of morons kind of way".

There are rows and rows of every weapon imaginable. For the sake of this, the room security seems to regard pistol sized projectile weapons and shortsword or smaller sized weapons as a side arm, anything else as a main weapon.

_________________

George also informs the party that he has access to the ships power reserves, and while large amounts of it are blocked off for some unknown reason, you do have the ability to alocate energy to various systems:

CASTLE FLIGHT takes 30% of the energy, for each percent less, it'll begin to lose altitude in that many meters/minute. You are currently 1.5km up.

THE SHIELDS are currently allocated a further 30% and will hold out from the expected bombardment from breaking fully for 3 hours. Each 1% allocated buys you another 6 minutes.

IRON GOLEM WARRIORS are stored inside the castle in substantial numbers, and are powerful combatants, but each one takes 5% of the energy to run.

TELEPORT JAMMERS are currently operating, to prevent the forces of PTT just teleporting aboard and require 10% of the energy. Each 1% it's power is reduced by will allow through 1 enemy a minute.

SENTRY TURRETS are capable of taking down attacking aircraft including the landing vehicles, and the Castle has a number, but each requires 5% energy.

THE OMEGA BLAST is a powerful blast weapon, capable of taking down any opponent, however, each shot will drain 25% of the power supply.

QUANTUM JUMP Is a teleportation that would allow you to move the castle out of here, but it'd take 20 minutes to charge up, and would require you dropped all shields for the power.

PHASERS are small, not especially powerful beam weapons but able to track moving objects perfectly to take them out - running a pair of phaser turrets costs 5% energy.

VOXEL SHIELDS Are shields that would take a looong time to break into, but every system on the castle except for flight would have to be taken down to operate them, right down to lights, air pressure systems, food preperation and water.

ESCAPE PODS These are very tough, and would get a person to freedom, but at current power levels, the first one would cost 15% energy, and each subsequent one would add 10%.

[shadowflare]

Marisa runs to the armory, at the very least hoping for a side arm to go along with her hakkero, idealy something that fires faster or.... something.

Edit: Ok, main arm too, idealy something that can be used by one hand, and short ranged to make up for lack of that.

[NFX]

The statue wasn't as heavy as it looked, Twitch thought. Still, he wouldn't like to be carrying it around all day, and as luck would have it, he spotted what was clearly a duck pond not too far from where he was. The parrot flew overhead...jeez, those were some pretty big ducks...swooped down towards the pond and dropped the statue in around three feet from the surface. That was the second of his objectives completed, and now he could get back to the rest of the group. Flying almost straight upwards with his back to the sun, Twitch called George on his communicator and requested to be teleported back to the castle.

[alex_holt]

MARISA

Apparently, not having specific ideas as to what she wanted beyond functionality, Marisa grabs a small magical ring and a floating skull made of Amber. Upon a quick test drive, she finds her weapons are as follows:

Sidearm:
The Beesting Ring A magical ring which fires hundreds of tiny yellow energy bolts a minute in a continuous stream at the wearers will. To a human sized enemy, individual needles are painful but not outright dangerous, but the shear quantity it fires is quickly capable of paralysing foes of even killing after a slightly longer exposure, but even a few hits are enough to slow opponents down enough to hit them more easily with heavier weapons.

The Skull of Vrathos The exact nature of this item is not specifically known, but the general gist is it is a one handed magical flamethrower, capable of burning through most mundane substances. It hovers above the owners hand, and moves in alignment with the owners wishes. The exact intensity of the fire varies with the emotions of the owner.

TWITCH

As the statue hits the pond, there is a sound familiar to something smashing through glass and then a silence. More concerning however, is that Goerge isn't respond to the request or teleportation.

[kodster]

Eudial, suddenly feeling very petrified, followed Marisa to the armoury. She knew the attackers were after her and her alone, and though powerful she was and suddenly by allies and her own weapon inventory, she wasn't expecting this kind of a force to chase after her. Hell, this would almost be an adequate enough force to take out who she once called Master. And they were after HER! Eudial trembled, but she wasn't going down like this. Not without a hell of a fight.

Her mind went to the Witches' Staff she used to wield back in the Tao Nebula, and as she entered the armoury, it was that weapon that was on her mind most, preferably as a main weapon, since all of the Witches 5 wielded one. When prompted about the side arm/weapon, Eudial hesitated. She knew her defensive capabilities were lackluster, so she was hoping to find something that could dispel sheer brute force. She finally settled her thoughts on something that could repel piercing and/or slicing weaponry most.

[NFX]

Twitch glanced behind him as he heard the sound of glass shatter coming from the pond...the pond was made of water, and that didn't shatter. Last time he checked it wasn't solid enough to demolish copper either. But he had done what had been asked of him, and he could get back to the castle. Or at least, if George would respond. "George?" he asked, "Hello? I'd like to come back to the castle, please." He waited for a moment...

...no reply. Okay, Twitch was worried now, something was clearly going wrong at the castle. Regardless, he needed to get back there and figure out what was happening. Tapping his communicator again, this time the macaw attempted to contact anybody who was available. "Anyone listening, it's Twitch, I can't teleport back, what's happening?" he asked in a slightly rushed manner, before folding his wings back a little, pointing his beak forward and backtracking to the castle as fast as he was able to. Twitch noted a slight tailwind for the journey back, that would speed proceedings up a little.

[alex_holt]

EUDIAL

Given only a few seconds to chose, Eudial managed to grab a magical staff and an energy shield.

SECOND DEGREE ELEMENTALIST STAFF What many people do not realise is that manipulating the elements in their purest form is a very basic magic, and it is far more advanced to be able to wrangle the secondary elements formed of their combination. Thus this staff allows manipulation of those 2nd level elements:
Earth/Fire = Lava
Earth/Air = Dust and Sand
Earth/Water = Mud
Fire/Air = Lightning
Fire/Water = Acid
Air/Water = Steam and Vapour

GUNGAN ENERGY SHIELD A tall, lightweight blue energy shield, capable of deflecting most physical and energy damage.

TWITCH
After flying part of the way, Twitch notices the Old Worlds Society nearby.