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...

[NFX]

Finally, the group were back at the castle, out of the emptiness of space. Twitch still hadn't exploded, that was good. He stood alongside Eudial, listening to Anjushree's tale, still trying to figure out how all these stories he had heard since arriving tied into one another. There was something about the griffon's voice, though, its manner of talking, that sent a minor chill down his spine. The macaw shivered a little.

"Three others?" he asked. "So we've to find the other three rift things before the timer runs out?" Twitch gave a cautionary look at the watch he was wearing around his ankle, noting the time remaining. "Well, as long as we're here, there's what, armoury, vaults...libraries?" he suggested to the others, "There's bound to be some good stuff in there. THE CASTLE IS NOW AT YOUR DISPOSAL."

Twitch glanced at George. The bird was definitely not the best at impressions. He took a couple of paces backwards, glancing around awkwardly, before he noticed something unusual. Something he hadn't spotted before Anjushree returned. "Hey, where's Doomface gone?"

[majinb]

CINEMA: OPEN

Aurelia addresses everyone present.

"Eudial! Playzooki! Twitch! Marisa! Vengeance! Epsilon! Mammoth! Dwarf! Leprechaun! Squirrel! Anjushree! George! Anyone else who I might have forgotten to address! We have work to do, but we have also got recent victories to celebrate! I propose we shall watch a movie together, to bond, to learn, to rejoice, to come out stronger and more prepared to tackle the final hurdles in our way! Allow me to use my communicator to get Khloe, Cleo and Leland to join us!"

Aurelia walks towards the cinema, communicator held in hand, to see what movies Doomforall likes.

[kodster]

Eudial had aptly listened to this, though somehow she felt she knew about it already... ugh, no, that stupid angel wanted to celebrate. This was no time for a picnic! The quest wasn't over until the danger was wiped out. Or so Eudial thought of it, anyway. It was certainly a grueling ordeal, but now that she had been in a few fights, she was raring for more action, and not remaining idle.

Ignoring Aurelia, Eudial addressed the Griffon. "You were able to detect these three other beings, yes?" she said with a curious gleam in her eyes. "Do you know where the nearest one is? The sooner we rid ourselves of them, the sooner we will return to normalcy."

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt stared blankly at the motionless cat. He was getting rather impatient. Was it really going to just sit there? He walked back over to Cleo and began gently herding the cat towards the elevator.

"All things considered I have to insist we get moving. The quicker we get in and get this over with the better."

[alex_holt]

EUDIAL: "I'm afraid that that particular spell used up some very rare ingredients, I don't think I could replicate it again any time soon without months tracking down the reagents. But, at least 2 of the sources were in this city, and the third was shielded somehow from divining its location - it was like trying to locate something when viewing the world the a keleidescope.

There is a pause.

"However, I think you might have a lead on one of them"

The griffon gestures towards a television behind Eudial and on the screen there is a news report of a hostage situation going on down town from here - a huge figure in what looks suspiciously like armour made from thick overlapping plates of rift energy has taken some of the University Faculty hostage - interestingly from the Department of Inter-dimensional studies.

AURELIA
On looking through the films Doomforall last watched, she finds several Studio Ghibli films that are apparently only saw production in some fairly obscure corners of the multiverse, a film of Cable and Deadpool, some wildlife documentaries, a box set adaptation of Planescape: Torment as a TV series along with various other things.

LELAND AND CLEO
After shoving the cat through the lift, they arrive at a reception area where a Crumpet-elemental sits behind the desk.
"Welcome to PTT, how can we help you today?"

[kodster]

Ugh. Hostage situation. This made Eudial sick. Not once did she want to be thought of as a hero. But at the same time, this involved the rifts, and those couldn't be ignored.

Eudial's eyes narrowed, and she turned to George. "Is there anything in this castle that would be beneficial in a fight against that vandal?"

[NWOWWE]

they arrive at a reception area where a Crumpet-elemental sits behind the desk.
"Welcome to PTT, how can we help you today?"

Gaunt put on a smile and walked up to the desk.

"Well my friend I hope you can help me. It's not been a very good day for me lately because not too long ago I just had a rather unfortunate run-in the Psi-corps. Well... run-in maybe isn't the word for it, it was more like being kidnapped quite frankly."

Gaunt paused dramatically for a moment. A thought occurred to him, he might be able to play up to this company's paranoia of the Psy-corps. Considering what the Sucker had said about this place it probably wouldn't be too much of an untruth anyway.

"Interestingly enough one of their employees, a Dr. Seben, was trying to question me about his place. Like he was sure I had inside information about it. Fortunately another companion of ours helped us dispatch him and we were able to escape. But I just couldn't stop thinking about why he wanted information about this company and why he was so... ahhhh... unpleasant, in his questioning. So I just knew I had to come here and at least let someone know about it."

Gaunt paused again and let the receptionist take it in for a few moments.

"Now I know this is probably a more serious inquiry than you would usually get at this desk, so I was hoping that there was a higher-up here that my friend and I could speak with. It might be very important."

[majinb]

Aurelia sits down in the cinema, finds some popcorn, invites her posse over, and watches the pilot episode of Planescape: Torment.

[NFX]

"I'm not really one for cinemas..." Twitch mumbled. There were a number of things that he didn't enjoy about the places: the fact he was only two feet tall and thus couldn't see anything on the screen, the fact he couldn't eat popcorn without bringing it back up again, and for some reason every film he watched in a cinema had black flashes all the way through. Why anybody would want to watch that he had no idea.

"You guys have fun, though. I'm gonna go exploring, see what cool stuff I can find. Vaults, armoury, that sort of thing." he told the group, taking off into the air, momentarily casting a conspicuously large parrot-shaped shadow on the screen. "I'll meet you back here in a while!" he called, as he swooped out of the room, and began flying his way through the castle with his trusty bag of holding in claw.

[alex_holt]

AURELIA

There are some great production values in the Pilot and some superb acting, Aurelia can see why it was nominated for some awards, even where there are slight changes from the source material.

LELAND AND CLEO

The Crumpets all suddenly swivel so that the holey upper sides stop spinning aimlessly in various diections and face directly at Leland. Evidently the death of Seben has caught this griddled golem's interest... It presses a button and a nearby private lift opens up.

"I believe that you should perhaps talk to such a higher-up immediately" - it says in as a nervous a voice as a cloud of crumpets can manage.

As they enter the sort of lift (but more seems to be swirling around a rail towards the core) they feel vaguely sick, and the lights indicate they are now in the private floors, and accelerating. Then with little warning the whole lift jars to a halt. It opens up into a small office filled with lots of filing cabinets and drawers and trays and other bits of bureaucracy. A thick haze of cigar smoke wafts across the room from a chair facing away from them.

"So, I hear you killed that blaztach Seben. Good. Perhaps we should have a little chat, and then if I like what you hear, I might have a job for you"

The chair spins around to reveal a portly and exceptionally grumpy looking bipedal blue hedgehog. His suit is messy and has nicotine stains, and his lanyard identifies him as Olfactory T. Hedgehog.

EUDIAL

"Why of course Miss Eudial, if you head over to the equipment room and state your search preferences, we can furnish you with whatever items you feel you will need. Standard items can be provided in whatever quantities you require, but for archiving reasons we can currently only provide you with 3 items each of any unique or unusual items."

[kodster]

"Why of course Miss Eudial, if you head over to the equipment room and state your search preferences, we can furnish you with whatever items you feel you will need. Standard items can be provided in whatever quantities you require, but for archiving reasons we can currently only provide you with 3 items each of any unique or unusual items."

Eudial scowled. "Miss"? A ripple of anger passed through her at the honorific, but she quickly dispelled both that and the sour expression on her face. "Equipment room, huh? Thanks for the info." Eudial winked and made off towards it.

When she got there, she coughed and stated about the hostage situation and the rift source, and folded her arms.

[NWOWWE]

"So, I hear you killed that blaztach Seben. Good. Perhaps we should have a little chat, and then if I like what you hear, I might have a job for you"

Gaunt's eye twitched slightly at the mention of a "job". That ended up sounding too much like bulls*** Dr. Seban had fed him. But a thought occurred to him. That George fellow had said something about loot available on their ship in his head while they were riding the lift to this office. If he could get away from this office for a few moments he could head there and at least feel stocked up in case things went south again.

He looked at the surely Hedgehog. As unkempt as he looked, Gaunt felt more comfortable dealing with him than he ever did with that psi-doctor.

"An exceptionally good idea. However if I may your pardon for a moment I was hoping to use a restroom. I haven't had proper time to collect myself since the ordeal at the Psi-corps and honestly I wasn't expecting to get to talk with anyone here so promptly."

With that Gaunt excused himself from the room and found the nearest likely deserted room and signaled for George to take him to the ship.

[steven_mcg]

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.

Oh, Doomsy, you most charitable corpse. Thank you so very much! A pity we can't break into the study, but hey-ho, that'll give me something fun to do once this whole sorry mess is over with.

George, firewall and encrypt my personal credit account, make a full catalogue of the Armoury's contents for future attacks, have the automatons retrieve any of my personal things that have wound up as collectables in the trophy room over the years and give me first dibs on any Doctor Who DVDs stowed away in the cinema. Then have yourself an oil break. You've earned it, little man.

We really should find the rest of these rift sources, but oddsbodkins, that was knackering. I vote we take the briefest break, then try and find the next nearest source location. I'm sure our new rooms will be able to help us in some capacity there.

I'm taking a quick tour, then finding out if there really was a universe where the BBC didn't bin all of Hartnell and Troughton's stuff.

[alex_holt]

VENGEANCE

While George beefs up the security of Vengeance's account, the Professor himself inspects the film library and indeed, the TV shows a universe with all the Doctor Who series that were lost in his universe. Alongside some ones which clearly did not happen in his own universe: Brian Blessed, Samuel L Jackson, Maggie Smith, Ken Watanabe, Christopher Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sean Bean are among the first batch of series he finds.

LELAND and EUDIAL
Teleported straight to the equipment room next to Eudial, it appears to be a circular room with some comfy settees around one half of the room, some display screens on the opposite and a conveyor belt beneath them to dispense with smaller items.

Welcome EUDIAL. Please search for items. You have 7/7 queries remaining and 3/3 item claims remaining.
Welcome LELAND GAUNT. Please search for items. You have 7/7 queries remaining and 3/3 item claims remaining.