[Nexus] Outside XXVII

[Lost_Deep]

Devan Mountain

Whoop!

The guy snags his chakram and dodges the sword. Barely. No, wait, it grazed him.

If fade would gain any health back from that graze, he will gain less back than he would usually. This guy has a ton of boosts on him, including health drain reductions.

Seeing an opening, the guy charges forward. The girl keeps her flame on him. Why would she be doing that?

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

"Actually, the mirrors are each linked to another mirror elsewhere- this one is reflecting what the other mirror sees, to put it bluntly. They serve as quick and efficient travel over long distances with no risk." Which means somewhere there's an empty room with a mirror reflecting a cat which isn't there in it.

So, what happened to the circular portals used last time?

[Zefir]

Devan Mountain

This guy is tougther than he thought, but still Fade has a few tricks to deal with that.

his shadow changed again and got to a normal human size. He cast fast using less mana, but enougth for the spell. A blue gab apears in his right hand and if they follow the sword it also appears in front of it. So the sword is flying out of this gap, much slower, but fast enougth to reach out of the gap befor the troll enters. Fade will indeed grap the sword and tries to block the first attack of the troll.

On another note his shadow started to move closer to the troll girl. Spending white mana for now.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

That is odd.
"You guys replace the teleporters for some reason?"

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

"Yes. It was discovered that the circles had a cumulative 1% chance of disappearing the person teleported through them per mile after the first. We have kept them, however, in case they are merely displaced in time. But we installed them a thousand years ago and the first to try travel over 100 miles still hasn't rematerialised, so we don't have much hope." Which means this library/museum is truly huge, if somebody teleported over 100 miles. Or tried to, anyway. "You were at no risk on your previous visit; you never teleported further than a mile and a half."

[Lost_Deep]

Devan Mountain

Fine! The troll will resume melee fighting. Neither troll notices the shadow. The girl is giving all her attention to the guy.

Now would be a really good time to strike her... but she still does not have a shadow.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

"Oh. Ummm... yay? I guess." Reinholdt shifts awkwardly. That's not fun to hear, even if they say he was at no risk.

[Zefir]

Devan Mountain

Fine! The troll will resume melee fighting. Neither troll notices the shadow. The girl is giving all her attention to the guy.

Now would be a really good time to strike her... but she still does not have a shadow.

Devan Mountain

Fade isn't a very good meele fighter especially when his enemy is buffed like that. he manages to dodge and block most attacks, but can't prevent new scrathes.

Oh and sending his shadow out is something which doesn't need her to have a shadow. Fade's shadow materialize and became a woman. Human like. her hand is glooming for white mana as she release it and hundrets of swords appear in front of her aiming for the troll with her lantern. The field they fly through is very larg, which means he doesn't try to make a one hit kill he just tries to cause wounds.

[Lost_Deep]

Devan Mountain

The blades cut her, and the stream of fire stops flowing into the guy. The lantern girl tries to blast the shadow girl, and the guy is suddenly not near as good with combat.

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

The Encyclopede turns to one side and heads towards a different mirror and clambers through it. The mirror ripples as the millipede-like knowledge seeker passes through it, and it looks rather odd. When it's through, the Encyclopede waves at Reinholdt, although probably more at Reinholdt's reflection its seeing in the mirror. After all, that's what the Encyclopede is here- a reflection.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

"Well that's either really neat or really creepy."
...
"Probably both."

Reinholdt says, before he goes to step through the mirror after the encyclopede.

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

The mirror feels much like a real mirror, though it doesn't prevent Reinholdt stepping through. There's about a half-inch between the mirrors- that bit feels wet, cold and slimy. It's distinctly unpleasant, though Reinholdt leaves completely dry. "The first time through such a mirror is often rather shocking. Are you ready to leave immediately, or would you prefer to wait and catch your breath?" The room they're currently in is much the same as the previous one, though the door is made of wood.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

Reinholdt shudders.
"Gimmee a second." The cat says, before giving himself a tongue bath. It might not actually do anything for him, but it feels like it after that cold slimy transition.

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

The Encyclopede watches interestedly and takes notes. Whilst it works in the Department of New Macedonian Pottery, any new information is to be gathered by any Encyclopede. The fact that each is linked to the Wikipede makes it very difficult to determine where one Encyclopede ends and another begins, anyway.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

I hope by now they've seen a cat bathe itself!

"Ok. Ready." It's as good as he's going to get it, what with nothing there.

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

They were mainly looking for differences and similarities between a cat licking itself and a talking cat licking itself.

"Excellent, please follow me." The Encyclopede walks up to the door, which slides to one side automatically. On the other side is a vast chamber filled with machinery, both technological machinery and magical machinery, plus the inevitable combinations of techno-magical machinery, technomantic machinery and magical technological machinery. The noise in this chamber is incredibly loud; if the Encyclopede says anything it can't be heard over the incredible noise.

The Encyclopede races across this chamber as fast as it can; seemingly, it doesn't like the noise. Also, if Reinholdt looks back any time soon, he'll note that the door seems to have moved.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

Reinholdt does not look back. He's too busy covering his ears in pain and being pink to fly across the room and keep up with the Encyclopede. This place was like a wacky nightmare.

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

The Encyclopede walks through another door, this one resembling two metal jaws that clamp shut tightly behind them. "Apologies about that, but the indexes are kept near the Wikipede's core, and the only way to it is through the engine room. Our realm moves to the Wikipede's desires, but it will not let the indexes be destroyed without being certain that the vandals do not escape alive." Well, that's pleasant, isn't it?

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

"I suppose that's a good deterrent to anyone who aren't zealots." Zealots of what? Misinformation? Good luck organizing those meetings.

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

Actually, the Encyclopedes are completely immoral- they collect information for its own sake, and so long as they gain information from it they don't care what they sell to who. Therefore, they're willing to sell copies of evil spellbooks for a collection of rare recipies. So lots of people have problems with the Encyclopedes.

"Yes, and even some zealots have difficulty. It's fascinating trying to find out what makes religious zealots tick." By which the Encyclopede means, dissecting their brains.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

Sounds more like they're completely amoral. But immoral can work too if brain dissection comes into play.
*puts Reinholdt's tin foil hat on*

"I suspect religion makes religious zealots tick."

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

I meant amoral but typed immoral. Whoops.

"Not always. We've encountered three which had been the recipients of brain-altering surgery, and more had various drugs circulating within their bloodstreams. Two used slow-acting poisons so that if they failed they'd die before divulging their secrets. Luckily for us, we were able to retrieve their memories before they died." That's a gruesome process that usually results in the victim either suffering from amnesia, or more often with the mental capacity of a vegetable.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

"Umm... right. Ok." Reinholdt says, shifting uncomfortably. He gets the point. No destroying the information! Not that he'd want to anyways.

[Zefir]

Devan Mountain

The blades cut her, and the stream of fire stops flowing into the guy. The lantern girl tries to blast the shadow girl, and the guy is suddenly not near as good with combat.

Devan Mountain

Well Fade notice that his power decreases and starts attacking with his sword trying to drive him into a corner.

The shadow in this time avoides her first attack by becomeing a shadow again, which let's the blades disapear since she isn't able to concentrate. She will reapear a few meter away trying to draw her attentionwith grimaces.

[Lost_Deep]

Devan Mountain

They guy is on a full defensive, but is still easily and predictably driven into a corner. It does not seem like he's noticing this, and Fade can scratch him a few times if he wants to.

The girl, however, is trying to decide whether to attack this new assailant or help her teammate.

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

There's a short walk along a narrow corridor before the Encyclopede and Reinholdt arrive in a massive chamber.

Well, it's large in all four dimensions, and there's some railings along one side overlooking something. It's well lit by a large amount of floating orbs of light, some occasionally changing colour and more making complex patterns in the air. On one side of the room is a vast glass wall, behind which lies a massive computer. The computer's technology is rather higgledy-piggledy; silicon computer chips interacting with multifaceted carved crystal and complex arrangements of miniature menhirs. Mystic-looking runes are carved or painted onto many different parts of the computer, making it look like a combination of magic and technology. There's no relics or books visible in here, which is unusual- such items are pretty ubiquitous throughout the Encyclopede's Library & Museum.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

Reinholdt takes a look around the place, mostly distracted by the floating lights. Shiny...

"Is it Saturday Night Fever already?" He jokes.

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

"No. This is Tuesday, about five in the afternoon." The Encyclopedes use my timezone.

Most of the lights are at least ten feet above Reinholdt's head. Also, if he looks behind them, the door through which they walked is still there. Unfortunately, the rest of the corridor is not.

[Reinholdt]

Bronze Pyramid

Reinholdt's long since given up with trying to look behind him in this place. It just creates headaches.

".... I was kidding. It's Saturday Night Fever cause of all the strobe lights you got that change colour and... oh forget it."

[Earl of Purple]

Bronze Pyramid

"Oh. A type of joke. We are familiar with kidding." Unfortunately, the Encyclopedes don't really have the capacity for humour, nor boredom. It really boosts their efficiency in this place. "You wanted the index, yes? Well, it's over there." Unfortunately, I can't remember which index he wants.