From tbutler@birch.net Tue Aug 21 02:03:06 2001 Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 21:57:08 -0500 From: Travis Butler To: Philip J. Moyer , Chris Bremner Subject: [Amber/UnS] The Castle of Night, Part 1 In The Belly of the Beast You're inside a Logrus Squid! [Exits: Arden. ] Contents: Red Right Hand, Spellvis, tfp, and Othello. Beowulf bows. "OOC Seecret things going on? o.o" Wakaba says, "The castle stuff will be." Beowulf nods. Wakaba asks, "Okay, you're gonna check with the Taxi company, then head to the Castle, right? Or am I forgetting something?" Beowulf says, "That's it... well, sharing what we found out with our PI, but that's just an extension of Taxi visit." Wakaba nods. Beowulf asks, "OOC Is Touga going to want to come along for the Castle, or not?" Wakaba says, "OOC You haven't asked him to." Wakaba says, "OOC As he doesn't know about the card or anything." Wakaba asks, "OOC Do you want to show him the card and ask him?" Beowulf OOCly nods. "Will mention the card to him when we're on the way to check out the taxi company (usual out of earshot precautions, etc.), but leave it up to him whether he wants to go." Wakaba says, "Touga tells you he's intrigued and will go along." Okay, you head to the Taxi Company. They direct you to a guy named Max, who picked up your target. Max tells you, "She called in to HQ and asked for a Taxi. So I came and picked her up from the front of Romana Dormitory on the campus. She said her name was Mandi, and she paid cash." Beowulf nods. "Thank you, Uncle. I wasn't sure how comfortable you'd feel going on Shadow trips, after what happened on the Gaunt Man expedition." Touga says, "That was a rather unusual state of affairs. I would hardly be a special agent for the King if I could not survive usually in shadow." Beowulf nods. "Indeed. Well, if I hadn't mentioned it before, I'm happy I was able to help you out that time, and sorry I wasn't able to get to it more quickly." Touga says, "Once the Blimp crashed, everything was such a mess that it was hard for anyone to keep track of everything. Don't concern yourself with it." Beowulf nods in thanks. Beowulf taps his chin thoughtfully. Was Romana Dorm around when Bey was there, and what kind of rep did it have, if any? Beowulf says, "OOC The GSP/Corbin of Panopticon? ^_^" Romana Dorm is a freshman dorm for women. It has a reputation for lots of kids going wild when they realize their parents no longer can stop them. Beowulf asks, "OOC In other words, very easy to use as cover?" Wakaba says, "OOC Exactly." Beowulf makes a note of the fact so that Mr. Hatchett can look into it if he thinks it's worth the time. He also does a quick scan of Max with the nanobot-detector, in case 'Mandi' was careless, or a little too drunk on her Manilow. He is free of nanobots. Good thinking, though. Beowulf says, "OOC o/~ ...and you came, and you gave without taking... o/~" Beowulf asks, "Did she do anything in particular on the ride, Max? Did she appear nervous, or talk to herself, and suchlike?" He says, "She sang this really AWFUL song about herself." Beowulf nods, and quotes a few lines from Manilow. "That one? We learned it as a part of the training to resist torture." HE nods. "Exactly. Other than that, she seemed pretty normal as college girls go. No drugs or anything." Beowulf nods. "And she paid in cash?" He cocks his head inquiringly. "Is that fairly common for you?" He nods. "Yeah, it's pretty normal." Beowulf nods. "That figures." He tries to think if there's anything else he needs to ask. "Did she say why she was heading to the spaceport?" He says, "She said she had to meet some friends and give them a big thing of coffee she was carrying." He shrugs. "Biggest cannister I've ever seen." Beowulf nods. "Could you describe the canister? Did it have anything written on it?" He says, "It was a big metal cannister of Olythic Coffee." Beowulf says, "OOC Olythic Coffee mean anything special? :)" Wakaba says, "OOC Nope, it's just a common brand here." Othello wakes up. Wakaba says, "OOC It would be child's play to buy a big container and switch the label from the Coffee onto one's big container." Othello has left. Beowulf nods and thanks Max for his time, giving him an appropriate tip. He smiles and heads out. What's next? Beowulf gives Nick Hatchett a call. Nick says, "Hello, Beowulf. How's things been going?" Beowulf asks, "Well, we picked up a few things of interest, but not much." OOC Hm, I forgot to ask Aeris if the phone is guarded against tapping? Wakaba says, "OOC It is." Beowulf goes over the information they found, particularly the video records. "It seems like they're trying to provoke us, by using such a blatent delivery of the sabotage." He says, "Makes sense to me. I'm inclined to think that the girl was a handmade delivery system who probably discorporated into gas once she delivered the nanobots. For that matter, they might easily have actually been inside her flesh while the cannister was empty, a bomb, or whatever." Beowulf nods. "Indeed." He goes over Touga's theory that the whole thing was a distraction to tie them down investigating while they operated elsewhere. "Obviously, we don't particularly want to play their game, and you know more about the local law enforcement and situation anyway." He says, "I'll continue investigating, but I suspect there's nothing left to be found. IF there is, I'll contact you." He says, "Especially given that time flows 24 times faster in Akasha; a small time here is a lot more there." Beowulf nods. "I was thinking things would be best-served if we took care of some other things on our plate, and let you continue. One thing I thought might possibly be of use, though, would be letting them think we're still tied up down here. Is there anything you can do here to give that impression?" Beowulf asks, "Or would it not be worth the effort?" He says, "I'll see what I can do." He says, "I suspect they've moved on, but we'll see." Foxtrot has arrived. Beowulf asks, "OOC Would normal contact be through the Panopticon/Akashan comm system?" Beowulf OOCly waves to Trish. "How goes?" Lily OOCly grins at Proffie. "Well. ^_^" Wakaba says, "OOC You need to give him a trump if you want him to contact you in Shadow." Wakaba says, "OOC I asked Trish to run Lily tonight :)" Beowulf says, "OOC Ahhhh. ^_^" Beowulf gives Nick a trump of himself. "You can use this to get in touch with me; I'm probably not going to be in Akasha." He gives him the contact info for Morganstern's ship if he doesn't already have it. Beowulf says, "I'll let them know what's going on so far." Lily smiles at Beowulf, just standing by his side, assessing things. He takes the trump and the info. "Alright," he says. Beowulf says, "Thank you very much for your help on this; if there's anything we can do to help you out with something, let me know and I'll see what we can do." He thinks for a moment. "Oh, one more thing -- it's probably not in your line, but if you see any information on the Arch of Time, I'd appreciate it." He blinks. "Umm, alright." Beowulf shrugs. "I'm not expecting it to be immediately important, but if someone starts sniffing around it, it could get an upgrade in priority." Lily frowns at that, but says nothing at this time. Beowulf says, "OOC As I *do* eventually plan on getting back to it. ^_^ I just have had higher-priority things on the plate. Oh, Trish -- Bey bought a ring on his first CAFAM trip that purported to be the 'key' to the Arch of Time, a construct in Shadow that works something like Trek's Guardian of Forever, but has been malfunctioning recently." Lily OOCLY says, "Guardian of Forever? I'm not a trekkie, luv." Beowulf says, "OOC A large stone archlike thing that shows scenes from the past, and supposedly lets you time-travel to them, IIRC the details." Beowulf says, "In any event... thank you again. Let us know what's up." Beowulf hangs up the call. "Well, everyone ready for a little Mystery Trump Theatre?" Lily asks, "I'm not too sure about this... but sure, why not?" Naru draws her sword. "I'm ready." Beowulf looks at Lily. "What's wrong?" Touga says, "I am ready." Beowulf asks, "OOC D'you know about the mystery trump yet, Trish?" Lily asks, "We have no idea where that came from... what makes you think it's not a trap?" Lily OOCLY says, "Been briefed somewhat." Beowulf says, "Well, it could well be... but the other two trumps from that source, whoever it is, have proven to be beneficial. And the only way we'll find out what it does is to check it out." He hmms. "It's not an obvious trump trap, anyway; Aunt Corrine checked it out, after all, and we know it leads to somewhere in Chaos." Lily asks, "They do say things come in threes... or was that a threesome?" Lily smiles at Beowulf. Beowulf's eyebrows raise a bit. "And who did you have in mind, my dear?" Lily smiles at Beowulf. "We'll talk later, love... shall we?" Beowulf grins. "I'm sure we will, whether I want to or not." He picks up the castle trump. "Any shielding folks want to do before we go, do so; then let's go." Lily has been ready for a while. Beowulf takes a grip on the whip and activates the trump. Naru says, "I'm ready." Touga says, "I'm ready." Lily is ready, too. Beowulf waits for the lovely rainbow shimmery trump effect. BLINKIE, you appear at the gates of a huge black castle on a sterile mountainside overlooking a forested valley. It rather reminds you of Castle Amber, if someone went mad with black paint. Overhead, thunder rumbles and lightning crackles. Lily stretches out her senses... Beowulf hmms, and takes a quick scan of the surroundings. Any action at the gates? Lily shivers. "Outsiders... why did it have to be outsiders?" Beowulf smiles ruefully. "Par for the course, I'm afraid. How strong?" The gates have a big yellow squiggle painted on them. There is no sign of guards. Lily snorts. "Does the phrase 'goatloads' have any meaning for you?" Lily casts a quick nightvision spell. Touga begins casting a spell. Naru frowns. "We're very exposed here on the mountainside. And I keep hearing birds but I don't see any." Lily says, "I hear the same ones." Beowulf rolls his eyes at Lily. "I see." He frowns at the report of birds. Lily raises an eyebrow at p the_prof akemi=. "Anything you want to say?" Lily OOCLY says, "Damn aliases...." Lily raises an eyebrow at Beowulf. "Anything you want to say" Beowulf says, "The door... is a sign of the Outsiders. The Yellow Sign. I'm guessing the birds are some kind of weird local creatures, possibly spying/scouting." Touga says, "It is also a powerful ward." Touga says, "Although it seems to be poorly maintained and is starting to fray at the edges." Beowulf hmms. "Warding to seal folks out, or to seal something in? And how hard would it be to dispel it?" Beowulf says, "A sign of the Unspeakable one, supposed to cause madness. Try not to look at it." Lily asks, "Good questions... problem is, how do we find out the answers?" Beowulf asks, "OOC I take it Naru's right and we are fairly exposed?" Wakaba says, "OOC YEs. You're in front of a big gate on a lifeless mountain, out in the open for all to see." Beowulf asks, "OOC Touga have any idea how hard it would be to dispel this thing, since it's starting to fray?" Lily wants to make a joke about exposure, but is too worried about cover, herself. Touga says, "I will try to disarm the wards. Lily, I suggest you turn into something that can fly and take a look over the walls inside." He starts casting another spell. Lily looks at the birds over head... Lily becomes a raven and flies into the air. Lily scouts over the wall, following the flock. Naru paces nervously. Beowulf keeps a watchful eye on the surroundings while he waits to see if Touga can open the door, staff in one hand, whip in the other. Lily flies back from scouting. Beowulf asks, "What'd you find?" Touga is busy with the ward. Crackles of red flame are gradually devouring the Yellow Sign. Lily sqwaks at him for a while, then changes back. Lily says, "A keep, similar in layout to the Keep of the Five Worlds. Zombies roaming the courtyards inside." Lily says, "A rune on each door. I've memorized them, but don't want to draw them just yet." Beowulf hmmms. "How many zombies?" Lily says, "About eighty." Naru frowns. "Do they look very tough?" Touga says, "I will have the ward down in about ten minutes." Lily snorts. "They're zombies... what do you think?" Beowulf keeps watch while Touga works, ready to defend if necessary, and studies the bars on the gate w/o looking at the Sign. Naru laughs. "We killed hundreds, maybe thousands of those zombies on Mystara. 80 is NOTHING." Beowulf asks, "Did the runes ring any bells for you, Lily?" There is not much way to look at the bars without looking at the Sign. Beowulf smiles in agreement with Naru. Beowulf ah's, and waits for Touga to finish then. It's like trying to look at the doorknob of a door, but not the door. Touga finally finishes off the Ward. "Whoever made that ward probably had strength on a level with Nanami or Hiko or Mikage," he says. "Very impressive." Beowulf blinks. "I see. Lovely. There aren't that many people in that class roaming around. Could you get any idea how long it had been there, besides 'long enough for it to fray'?" Touga then casts flight spells on everyone, just in case. "Decades. No one has opened that gate in at least 30 years, maybe longer." Beowulf now examines the bars as they talk. And what do the gates look like -- solid slabs, vertical bars, or what? Big metal doors. Where they come together shut, there's a narrow crack you can see the heavy metal bar through. Beowulf asks, "OOC How narrow? Say, wide enough to slip the monomolecular whip through and cut through the bar?" Wakaba says, "OOC Yep, you could do that." Beowulf feeds the monomolecular whip through the crack and cuts the bar, as that's less likely to attract attention than smashing the doors open. :) When it's about cut through, try to cut the last bit gently enough to keep 'em from crashing to the floor on the other side. You now get the gates open. Beowulf eases through the gates and makes sure they won't get ambushed by zombies before waving the others through. The four of you head in. The Zombies shout, "BRAINS!" And begin shuffling towards the four of you. Beowulf says, "OOC Anything else seem to react at that point? :) If not, start chopping zombies in the most efficient way possible." There's nothing but Zombies and a two story stable and the five sided Keep itself. Beowulf uses the monomolecuar whip on the first wave of zombies, then switches to the staff when they get too close for that. Touga begins flinging fireballs into their ranks. Naru just waits for them to close in, then begins brutally dismembering them with mighty strokes. Lily shields herself and starts making them burst into flame. Lily changes to demon form and starts dismembering the flaming pieces. The zombies soon are hacked to bits and fried. Lily proves wise, as the hacked up ones try to reassemble, until finally, you burn them all. Soon, all is silent and ash fills the courtyard. Beowulf hmms and looks around. Still no reaction? All is calm and silent. Lily is still somewhat on the defensive. Beowulf takes a quick look at the stable, since it's the only thing around besides the Keep. Naru cleans her sword on the ashes. "You'd think some ancient powerful sorceror could make better zombies." The stable is like the one in Amber; it may well be hoem to some flying creature in the upper story, given the roof doors (Currently closed) Beowulf shrugs. "Or else was just lulling us into a false sense of security. Anyway. Lily, you mentioned runes on the Keep doors? Any of them ring any bells?" Beowulf hmmms. Size of the doors? The doors into the keep are all normal sized doors, but come in sets of two (ie, double doors) Beowulf says, "OOC Size of the roof doors, so we can see what kind of flying creature there might be. :)" They're big enough for a small dragon or a large wyvern or gryphon Naru says, "We probably ought to make sure nothing's in the stables that could come up behind us." Beowulf says, "Before we try going in, we should probably make sure there's nothing in the stable to come up... right." Beowulf approaches the stables quietly, best approved commando-stealth-mode, and checks it out. Lily says, "I think each is a magical ward. I'm not sure what they mean, though." Lily follows, carefully. Beowulf says, "OOC After we take care of the stable, need to disconn and switch rooms; battery's going low on laptop." Wakaba says, "OOC Okay." Lily OOCLY says, "Okay." The doors to the stable are not warded and open easily. Inside, you see twenty stalls, a feed bin full of dust, and stairs upstairs. In each of the stalls is a skeleton that used to be a horse. A softly glowing field forms the door of each stall. Lily shudders. "Poor horses... I wonder who their owners were." Beowulf hmmms. "Can you tell what kind of fields those are? And, perhaps, if those skeletons might be active, since we've already had to deal with undead zombies?" Naru seems saddened and angry. "What a waste of good horses." Touga says, "Password activated doors. I think the horses were left to starve and rot away." Beowulf nods soberly. Beowulf says, "Then again, the Outsiders were often wasteful." He looks disgusted. You can hear movement upstairs, the sound of bone scraping on wood. Foxtrot has connected. Foxtrot has disconnected. Beowulf goes closer to the stairs and sees if he can sense anything besides bone on wood. You can hear movement upstairs, the sound of bone scraping on wood. Beowulf exclaims, "OOC D'oh!" Lily OOCLY says, "Never mind... keep going." Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf listens up the stairs; the movement sounds like a creature pacing about. Beowulf asks, "OOC What's at the top of the stairs -- trapdoor? Open space? Regular upright door? How big would the opening be, whatever's there?" Wakaba says, "OOC The stairs lead up to a 4 foot square trap door that opens up." Wakaba says, "OOC IT's currently closed." Beowulf OOCly nods, and just got battery warning; have to switch *now*. :p BRB. Beowulf says, "OOC Back." Beowulf whispers, "The trapdoor is going to be a nasty place for it to wait for us; I suggest I cut a hole in the floor with the whip for Lily and I, while Naru and Touga go through the outside doors. It sounds like bony talons up there; it might be a skeleton, but more likely a flying beast with talons." Beowulf tries to analyize the pacing pattern from the sounds, to determine a good spot to cut the hole and pop up behind it. Touga and Naru fly outside and wait for your signal. Lily nods... "Or a boney flying beast with talons." Lily changes to demon form, and casts protective spells. You listen carefully and determine the best point. It does seem quite possible Lily is right inher guess. Beowulf whispers, "Did you have any particular ones in mind?" to Lily. Beowulf checks to make sure Lily's ready, then quickly cuts the hole and pops up behind the beast, swinging with the cane and calling out the signal as he strikes. Lily is ready... Lily pops up next to Beowulf, and throws her spell. Wakaba says, "OOC Brief pause for DM to get drink." Beowulf OOCly nods. Wakaba says, "OOC I'm back." Beowulf says, "OOC Ready to be slaughtered. :)" Lily OOCLY says, "Yeah, fun, WHEE!" When Beowulf and Lily pop up, you're by the flank of a green dragon that's seen better days. In some places, its bones are exposed, in others, flesh covers it. It wears rings around four of its long bony claws, and it's preparing to breathe something at whoever comes through the trapdoor you avoided. Lily's eyes widen at the rings on its fingers. Beowulf says, "OOC Do the rings look at all magical, or just something worn for decoration? :)" Wakaba says, "OOC They look magical and glow." Beowulf asks, "OOC And by any chance would they all be on the same limb?" Wakaba says, "OOC Two on each forepaw" Beowulf asks, "OOC Right. How hard does it look like it'd be to try whacking off both forepaws?" Wakaba says, "OOC No way to do in one shot, but you could try for the two on your side with your opening whip attack." Lily OOCly cooes. "Ooh.. thinking the same thing as I am..." Beowulf OOCly nods. Lily OOCLY says, "We're MEANT to be!" Beowulf OOCly grins. Lily casts her spell. Beowulf lashes out and badly damages teh forelimb, but it doesn't quite come off. Then Lily dumps freezing mist all over the creature, which is now coated with ice and slows down. High above, the doors smash open and Touga Mindbolts the creature, stunning it. Naru then dives down sword first, landing on its head to stab an eye. Then power crackles from the rings, firing black bolts at Touga and Lily. Beowulf asks, "OOC Can I intercept them with either the spellbreak whip or spellbreak staff?" Wakaba says, "OOC You can save Lily but not Touga." Lily OOCLY says, "Can I get Touga with a Magic Negation bolt?" Beowulf says, "OOC Damn. Well, try and save Lily." Lily OOCLY says, "Whoops... never mind." Lily OOCLY says, "Misread." Beowulf uses his spellbreaker to intercept the bolts meant for Lily. Wakaba says, "OOC You don't have the Magic Negate power word, Trish, but you could try using Wakaba's Defense vs. Sorcery on Touga to try to shield him." Lily OOCLY says, "Do it." Beowulf then uses the other weapon to make another try at cutting off the forelimb. Lily screams, "Get the rings! Cut off it's arms!" Touga tries a magic negation. Combined with Lily's spell, this saves him from the first bolt. He begins casting Gaze Reflection. Meanwhile, Beowulf saves Lily with his spellbreaker staff, and successfully slices off the Dragon's right forearm. The Dragon now thrashes, trying to throw Naru off. Lily gets in there, and slashes and bites at its fingers. Lily OOCLY says, "The ones with the rings." Naru continues hacking at the head, while Lily rushes under the head in demonform and goes after the other limb. Touga finishes his spell and considers his options. Beowulf tries to cut off the dragon's wings as he shouts to Touga, "Try something with an effect on undead!" Touga begins casting a spell. The creature tries to fling Lily away from its claw, but she continues chewing and slashing it; that paw will come off soon. Lily OOCLY says, "I just want the fingers with the rings to come off... if I can get the whole hand, bonus. ^_^" With whip and cane, Beowulf shreds one of the creature's wings. It manages to whip its tail around and grab his waist and SQUEEZE. It tries to shake off Lily and Naru, but they're too strong for it. And Touga now causes vines to sprout from the floorboards; they climb all over it and start to crush it. Beowulf tries to cut the tail to free himself. Lily chokes, but continues to gnaw and shred. Beowulf manages to hack off the tail and get free. Naru now has blinded the creature, and Lily rips off the last of the rings. Touga then dumps another mindbolt on the dragon. At which point you all hack the poor trapped thing to bits. It thrashes and flails, but soon perishes. Lily painfully shifts a ring out of her stomach and dumps it onto the floor, wiping her mouth. Beowulf nods tiredly. Anyone look hurt? Lily says, "That... was not pleasant." Lily drops to her haunches and examines the rings. Beowulf winces and gives Lily a quick pat in a non-spiky area. "I can imagine." Naru cuts off the creature's head, then takes a fang as a trophy. "I'm glad I didn't meet that alone." Touga flies down, "What do you make of the rings, Lily?" Lily pokes at the rings. "Well, there's the source of the mindblast spells." Beowulf nods to Naru. Lily says, "Whoever racked these spells had a lot of skill... I'll bet it was the same person who made the ward on the gate." Beowulf asks, "Spell racks, or built-in spells?" Beowulf nods. "Hm. Anything else we can tell about the caster at this point, since we've had several of his spells to work with?" Lily examines then further, carefully. Lily says, "These spells are racked... they're cast with contingency casting." Lily says, "When we attempted to stop it with Magic, it attempted to stop us." Beowulf nods. "Lovely. Any other contingencies on it?" Beowulf says, "Aeris says that there's no trump component in them, at least." Lily pokes at them again, then gathers them together. "They seem safe enough to carry. Whoever cast and racked these spells is a powerful sorceror... or sorceress." Lily smiles slowly. "I wonder what you could learn from a person like that?" Beowulf nods. "Were they Outsider-powered spells, by any chance? All of the ones racked in Morkeleb when I captured it were." Beowulf says, "OOC Morkeleb=the dragon staff." Touga says, "I suspect we have found the stronghold of a now dead wizard. There may be some great lore and much danger as well." He pauses. "Or it could be we have found Annadil's old stronghold." Lily perks up at that. Beowulf raises both eyebrows at that. "Hmmm. Interesting. I heard that Nausicaa and her group found *Taylor's* stronghold, and possibly some hints that Taylor had found Annadil's..." Naru twitches. "Annadil. Just great." Lily asks, "Daddy'd love to get his hands on any of the lore Annadil had... do you really think this would be his stronghold?" Beowulf gives Lily's demon form a careful hug. "Don't get *too* inquisitive, dear; remember what that knowledge did to Annadil. But yes, if it is his stronghold, there must be a lot of historically valuable information..." Lily shifts back and hugs back, hands wandering. "And you know how much I love *studying*..." Naru coughs. "No PDA." Beowulf asks, "Naru, weren't you with Nausicaa at Taylor's place?" Touga just seems amused. Beowulf looks inquiringly at Naru. "PDA?" Naru nods. "Yes, we found a lot of books Taylor said he got from Annadil. Unfortunately, his tower was destroyed with many of them, when his captive Outsider escaped." Beowulf smiles crookedly. "Lovely. We'll have to try to avoid that, yes?" Naru says, "Which likely means Annadil has something nasty imprisoned here if this is his place." Lily asks, "I just realized something... did we REALLY need to destroy the ward?" Touga says, "We could have flown over the walls, I suppose." Beowulf says, "The runes on the doors looked like they represented Yog-Sothoth, Nylarathotep, Shub-Niggurath, Cthugha, and Ithiqua. I rather doubt any of *them* are tied up here, especially given what happened to Mr. N, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were something similar to what Taylor had." Naru says, "It's mind was trapped on the bottom floors, its body on the top floors." Beowulf says, "I thought about that... but since a Yellow Sign like that represents evil and madness, I'd figured it couldn't be doing any good." Beowulf says, "From what I know of pre-Logrus history, it's a good idea not to leave working Yellow Signs around." Beowulf taps his chin in thought, trying to match up those runes with their layout in the Keep, as well as their other connections, to see if he can come up with any kind of pattern. Beowulf says, "OOC connections=associated meanings." Wakaba says, "OOC Pause. I have to write up a big info dump for Lily, who has a useful skill, and for Beowulf too." Beowulf OOCly nods. Wakaba exclaims, "OOC POWER OF INFO DUMP!" Lily OOCly staggers from all the info and falls down. Lily finishes her study of the area, and takes Beowulf by the arm. "Share info, lover?" Beowulf grins. "Mmm-hmmm. Well, this place appears to be laid out in a way very similar to the Keep of Five Elements, with the various Outsider God signs corresponding to the similar element at the Keep." Lily nods. "Nylarathotep is thought to have 1001 forms and Speaks for them... his door might lead to a temple area. Cthugha is a Fire Deity, while Ithiiqua is cold, storms, and winds..." Lily exclaims, "Yog-Sothoth controls Space and Time... the ARch!" Beowulf nods. "Good point about Mr. N." Beowulf asks, "The Arch?" Lily frowns at Beowulf. "I knew you shouldn't be bothering with that thing." Beowulf says, "Ah, the Arch of Time? Hmmm." Lily says, "Shub-NIggurath is a fertility Godddess... her door probably connects to an evil garden area." Beowulf says, "I had been wondering whether to check out Nylarathotep's door first, since he's the one currently trapped and dying." Beowulf says, "Perhaps we could also find some additional information on the ones who are competing to replace him." Touga nods. "That makes sense." Naru says to Lily, "I think you might be right about the Arch of Time; I've heard it is a very dangerous thing." Lily says, "And considering how unstable it is right now..." Beowulf says, "The question is whether it is more dangerous or less dangerous with the keystone removed." Beowulf says, "Although if it is under the power of Yog-Sothoth, perhaps it's best that it's disabled and no Outsider cultist is able to restore and use it for their benefit." Lily nods. "Yes, dear, you're right dear..." She smiles at Beowulf. Touga laughs. Beowulf looks skyward, wondering if he's being *that* obvious. :) Beowulf asks, "Well, are we ready to go in?" Lily pokes Beowulf in the arm and hugs him. Lily says, "Anytime you are..." Beowulf grins and tickles her back. "Righto." Naru says, "I am inclined to agree that the Nylarathotep door may be safest and possibly give us some good information on the Heralds, or at least on what they seek to become." Beowulf nods, and leads them back out of the stable. Beowulf asks, "OOC Did I miss Lily saying whether the spells in the rings were Outsider-based or not?" Lily OOCLY says, "I think I forgot to mention it." Beowulf says, "OOC So, are they? :)" Lily OOCly doesn't remember. Beowulf says, "OOC In any event, proably wouldn't be safe to use." Wakaba says, "OOC THey're just full of Goatloads of Psychic Might." Wakaba asks, "OOC Heading to the Nylarathotep door, then?" Beowulf examines the Nylarathotep door, checking for any mundane problems while asking Lily and Touga to check for any magical problems. Lily checks. It's locked. Lily says, "Hold up." Lily examines the door carefully, and looks at Touga. Beowulf asks, "OOC How late do folks want to go?" Lily OOCLY says, "I'm good until the mudslide wears off." Wakaba says, "OOC Despite hving gotten maybe 2.5 hours of sleep last night, I'm still good." Wakaba says, "OOC I slept really horribly and kept waking up every 30 minutes." Beowulf OOCly winces; sounds like a coupel of nights this week when he toosed and turned for two hours trying to sleep. x.x Suppose we play through Ny's rooms and then wrap for the night? Lily OOCLY says, "I'm good." Wakaba says, "OOC Let's see what develops." Touga goes to work on the wards, trying to pick them apart. Beowulf OOCly nods uneasily. ^_^ This takes quite a while, and he sweats a lot. Beowulf says quietly to Lily, "We are dealing with one very powerful sorceror." Lily whispers back, "I hope he or she is no longer here." Naru paces impatiently. Beowulf nods emphatically. "Still," he whispers, "if they concentrated enough on sorcery... a knife between the shoulder blades cramps a wizard's style, I've always heard." Touga's eyes flicker. "Multi-layered trap. Very nice." he keeps working Lily says, "Unless he's already anticipated that." At Touga's words, she winces, and looks around some more for other traps, etc. Lily says, "OH, wonderful..." Beowulf hmms? Touga finally disarms all the wards. The doors swing open at his touch, opening into a huge temple area. Lily says, "The walls are booby-trapped as well, to kill people who try to phase or teleport..." It has a big black altar at the far end, and many pillars in Egyptian style and lots of Egyptian imagery in general. Beowulf grimaces. "A very thorough and very nasty fellow." Lily rolls her eyes... "Who the hell are we dealing with?" Many doors lead off to other parts of the castle from the main temple area. Beowulf OOCly grins. "Whatever you do, *don't* touch the pillars. ^_^" Beowulf looks thoughtfully. Anything of note in the Egyptian imagry we can see from here? Lily crossreferences. It's noteworthy that it's all dark and evil and grim Egyptian imagery. Anubis eats the dead, etc. Also, the Altar seems to be designed to lay down a human inside a human shaped indentation on it, which is not standard for Egypt. And there's a big statue of a dark skinned, dark clad Pharoah by the far wall, next to a door. Beowulf nods. "Lovely. Human sacrifices, too." Beowulf hmms. "Not true Egyptian, but parodying Egyptian..." Lily examines everything, carefully. The whole place gives you a creepy feeling IT's also very dusty; a fine patina of dust covers everything. Beowulf takes a quick look to see if there are any signs of tracks in the dust. Beowulf asks, "OOC Creepy as in danger sense, or just nasty?" Wakaba says, "OOC Imagine the horror movie music is starting to play creepy :)" Beowulf says, "OOC Oh, joy. ^_^" Beowulf says, "I think we'd best find out what we can quickly and get out." Lily OOCLY says, "I'll bet there's a cat somewhere, it would complete the scary movie feeling." Lily nods, and carefully starts to examine things. Beowulf makes a quick check of the statue, just in case it might start moving, before trying to piece together any information he can from the images. Lily examines the human-sized indentation in relation to images. Examining the temple, you get the impression that one exit leads to a library (writte on the door), another to a vestry, another to 'The Void', another to a 'Treasury' and one to 'sacrifices' and one to 'Hallway'. They're all labelled in Hieroglyphs. Obviously human sacrifices were once conducted here. Lily OOCLY says, "To what end?" IT would appear to be a place to worship Nylarathotep. Perhaps appropriate sacrifices would summon him. Beowulf says, "I suggest we check out the Library first." Beowulf says, "The Void... may refer to the area Outside, beyond the Gate of Revolution; I'd prefer we be careful with that one." Lily nods. Beowulf checks the Library door for mundane items, then asks Lily and Touga to check for magical wards before they go in. Lily checks. "Oh good Unicorn, what can be on this door?" The Library door is just a door completely harmless. Beowulf grins. "Well, once inside I suspect we'd be better off; doesn't hurt to check, though." Beowulf asks, "OOC Which door was the statue standing by?" Wakaba says, "OOC The door that says 'the Void'" Beowulf OOCly grimaces and nods. Beowulf goes into the Library. The Library is, simply put, HONKING HUGE. We're talking the vicinity of 10,000 or more books across 6 stories of rooms. Lily is overwhelmed by the idea of books, and things in books, and things in books that she doesn't KNOW... Beowulf whistles softly at the sight. Beowulf looks for signs of what items were used most recently, and for any clues to the library's owner. Lily muses... "I wonder if there's a Tantric Outsider Sex for Dummies book here..." Lily looks as well, stretching out her senses. Beowulf just ignores Lily's comment. Nothing to see here, move along... o.o The library is full of TONS OF DUST. And it's hard to tell if anything's been used any time soon. Lily OOCLY says, "Last time someone was in here?" Lily closes her eyes... However, if you have any keywords you want to search for, Lily could use her racked Lily's Magically Assisted Research It's been several decades since anyone visited. Beowulf asks, "OOC How about any clues to the owner? Notebooks, diaries, and the like?" Lily opens her eyes and smiles at Beowulf. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Wakaba says, "OOC YOu need to invest a long time searching to see if any exist, Beowulf. Which you can, of course, do if you want." Beowulf says, "That depends. You planning on using your assisted research spell?" He smiles. Lily says, "Only if you aid me with your Obscure Knowledge Sources skill." Naru begins studying how the Library is laid out. Touga starts a spell. Beowulf says, "OOC How's the bag connection doing here? If it's solid, she could always duck into the bag and fasttime rack another one or two." Beowulf says, "And what should we look for? I'd like to find any personal research by the owner, first; it'd let us know who owned this place, and it's the things we couldn't practically find anywhere else." Wakaba says, "OOC THe bag works fine, so you could use it to rack several more of the spell too." Lily says, "Sounds good to me as a start." Beowulf says, "You could always fasttime rack a few more copies of the spell in the bag, too." Lily caresses Beowulf on the cheek. "Tell me what you need." Okay, so the keywords for the spell will be 'Personal Research' and tryig to find things by the Owner of the place? Beowulf grins and tweaks her on the nose. "A few more copies of the research spell, so we could look for other things, blue-eyes. What information did you want to look for?" Lily builds them quickly, and says, "Information on pre-Outsider lore... how things came to be?" Beowulf nods to the keywords for the owner. You cast the spell. It guides you to several dozen books, including a collection of notebooks. The notebooks are inside a warded cabinet, but Touga manages to pick the wards apart over time. By the timehe finishes, you're all starting to get kind of sleepy. The Notebooks contain lots and lots of interestng stuff. Lily OOCLY says, "Regular sleepy, or spell assisted sleepy?" Wakaba says, "OOC Sleepy as in you've all been up for 18+ hours and cuold use some sleep some time soon if you want to stay in peak condition." Beowulf OOCly frowns. "Yes, how long have we been awake?" Lily says, "I say we either copy down this information, or stash it away somewhere (if we can) and leave this place." Beowulf nods. "Aeris? How long would it take you to make copies of these books?" Aeris says, "A few hours, Daddy." Aeris continues, "If you want, I could copy them while you take a nap." Beowulf nods. Lily shivers. "Do you really want to sleep HERE?" Beowulf asks, "OOC How safe does this appear to be for sleeping?" Lily asks, "I mean, I've been in stranger places before... remember the time...?" Naru says, "I suggest we withdraw to the Stables, as we cleaned them out." Beowulf says, "OOC Actually, we could take turns fasttime sleeping in hte bag. :)" Touga says, "Best to leave the library, yes." OOC Yes, that's true, Travis :) Beowulf OOCly tries to figure out the mixed signals in that last sentence. :) Lily OOCLY says, "Touga's saying one thing, GM's saying another." Lily frowns. "That stable's just way too creepy. We can trump out of here, once we've reached the courtyard, and come back when we're rested. I mean, we do have the Castle Trump after all." Beowulf says, "Which delivers us outside the castle, and defences that may have reset themselves." Lily nods at Beowulf. "You do have a point, love. So what is your suggestion?" Naru frowns. "I wish we had Keitaro. He could make a trump. but noooo, he has to go off with the warrior hussy." Beowulf says, "We could take turns napping in fasttime inside the bag; one person pops in, sleeps for 18 hours inside, pops out a second later our time so the next one pops in." She kicks a bookcase irritably. Lily titters. "She's grown up well... I must have a talk to her sometime." Lily OOCLY says, Er, talk with her. Beowulf pats Naru on the shoulder. "Well, you'll just need to collar him the next time." He smiles. Lily smiles, and caresses Beowulf's arm. "We could take our shift together..." Beowulf asks, "Actually, Aeris could probably make a trump of here." He hmms, and checks the watch for active powers and the time gradient. "Though if they set up those nasty defences in the walls against teleport and phasing, I wonder if they've set up any kind of trump scrambling?" Beowulf grins at Lily. "That's an idea." Beowulf gives Aeris a quick hug. "Can you tell if there's any interference with Trump here?" She thinks hard. "Oh, daddy, there's a Trump Font in the basement here." Lily smiles at Beowlf... "Trump Font?" Beowulf grimaces. "I wonder if that's the source of the Outsider power that we felt from outside?" Lily says, "Oh, dear... we must take a look at it once we're rested up." Beowulf says, "Carefully. I've heard the font in the Keep of the Five Elements did nasty things to Uncle Miki when he fell into it." Lily says, "Yes, carefully." Aeris thinks some more. "But I think there aren't any trump traps upstairs. Downstairs is full of them." "Well, there goes that idea of traipsing down there..." she smiles. Beowulf asks, "Would you have any trouble working around them without setting them off, honey? And if the trump font downstairs is Outsider corrupted, would you be all right down there?" Lily thinks. Beowulf says, "OOC Actually, I was asking our daughter. ^_^" Lily OOCLY says, "Whoops." Aeris shudders, sounding scared. "I can try," she says. "But it scares me. It's bad." Beowulf hugs Aeris. "Don't worry, honey. We won't make you go in over your head." He strokes her hair. "What part scares you?" Lily OOCLY says, "Can you go on without em? Eyeballs are tired, and I've got a crick in my neck." Beowulf OOCly is about ready to crash himself... what would be a good stopping point? Wakaba says, "OOC This is a good point to stop for y'all, as you'll be resting IC and I assume Travis works tomorrow." Beowulf says, "OOC Ayup." Lily OOCLY says, Cool. *** Foxtrot goes OOC. *** *** Windir goes OOC. *** Trisha Lynn grins Trisha Lynn says, "Not sure when I'll get a chance to be online again, but it was fun being Lily for you. ^_^" Beowulf grins. "Many thanks for the good times. :)" Trisha Lynn gives Beo a STEAMY IC kiss and winks away. Foxtrot has left. Wakaba says, "OOC You were great Trish...missed." Wakaba says, "OOC Well, we made some good progress tonight. I hope you had as much fun as me :)" Beowulf says, "It was fun. And nice to be able to just pound on things for a bit. :) But man, this looks like it's going to take a long time to explore. o.o" Red Right Hand says, "Castle of the Night / Womb of Wheels..." Beowulf asks, "Oh, did we find out anything in those notebooks about the owner of this place?" Wakaba says, "OOC I'll tell you next time, as it will take some time to type out, but Annadil IS the old owner" Beowulf says, "Old owner, hmmm. Yeek." Beowulf says, "OOC Well, ain't we got fun. o.O And since the place has been used since he was gone, but not for 30 years..." Beowulf says, "OOC I think it might be a good idea for Aeris to pass along this info to Gabrielle, just in case we don't make it out; this is too important to lose." Wakaba says, "Yep :)" Beowulf asks, "OOC TIme to sleep;want me to head back to the main room?" Wakaba says, "Yes, please." Travis Butler tbutler@birch.net ...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.