Zagathoth nods like he understands what the man in the chair is saying. It seems fairly clear, however, that he doesn’t.
Giving up on the conversation, the orc wanders to the nearest door to see what’s beyond it.
Zagathoth, Ihrin, and Algoral (drumming a lively march on her drum) pass through the east archway into a sleek corridor lit by glowing ceiling tiles. Doors of what looks like gleaming, engraved ivory stand in the walls on either side, two doors on each wall, and a fifth door at the end of the 60-foot-long corridor.
Lucius follows the rest of the group but takes no part in the debate and is obviously uncomfortable with this new development.
"This thing is not something that should be tampered with. The powers it wields belong to God alone. To move through time on a whim is... too dangerous to imagine. We must leave this thing, or destroy it, at once. It is simply too much power in the hands of man."
Habiba stares aghast at Lucius.
"Destroy it? Out of sheer irrational fear? The lost opportunities, for all of humanity, the scholarship POTENTIAL, gone because you fear enlightenment? I can't even..." she trails off, unable to articulate the abject revulsion she has at the idea.
Mwikali looks at the metal men and responds.
** spoiler omitted **
BOOP blip whiiiiirrrr-SKEEEEE-whiiiIIIRRRR!!
The Rabbi, new Master of the Black Pyramid of Kronos, commands the living artifact-vessel to teleport to a clearing in the forest north of Kiev in the Kingdom of Lithuania, and the Pyramid obeys!
It is currently Sunday, 21st January, AD 1437, at around six o' clock in the evening. The sky is gray and copper as the sun sinks below the snow covered pines to the west. The Pyramid arrives hovering twenty feet above the snow-blanketed clearing, which is barely large enough to accommodate the hundred-foot-per-side vessel, before settling to the ground, crushing the snow into ice in a hundred foot square, and flattening a few pines at the edges of the clearing...
Some three or four hundred feet to the south, a company of some two dozen Turkish scouts are encamped in the snowy forest, spying on Kiev in preparation of a possible siege on the Orthodox Christian provincial capital of Lithuania...
The encamped scouts are soon aware of the strange black pyramid some four hundred feet to the north that wasn't there before...
In Turkish: Allah preserve us! What is that!?
Stealthily, the company of scouts approaches and circumnavigates the Black Pyramid on foot, as their horses will not approach the strange vessel...
What in the Prophet's name is this thing? It looks like a pyramid of Egypt, but black as the night sky, with glowing golden glyphs of alien origin! It cannot be of Earth... it must be from either Heaven or Hell...
Ihrin looks over the door holding up her hand to halt as she overlooks the doors.
She looks to see the first door on the left for traps.
"One must always check a door, not only for a lock but for any surprises...And no Zag, not the kind that makes a naked lady appear"she chuckles making sure all is well before moving to the next door.
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Lucius follows the rest of the group but takes no part in the debate and is obviously uncomfortable with this new development.
"This thing is not something that should be tampered with. The powers it wields belong to God alone. To move through time on a whim is... too dangerous to imagine. We must leave this thing, or destroy it, at once. It is simply too much power in the hands of man."
Habiba stares aghast at Lucius.
"Destroy it? Out of sheer irrational fear? The lost opportunities, for all of humanity, the scholarship POTENTIAL, gone because you fear enlightenment? I can't even..." she trails off, unable to articulate the abject revulsion she has at the idea.
"What I fear, young lady, is humanity's own worst impulses." The Cardinal responds sternly, suddenly showing every one of his sixty-odd years. "I have seen far too much evil done over the smallest points of difference and doctrine. The schism of Holy Church over the filoque, the exile to Avignon. Mankind is insatiable in its desire for power and someone will always seek to gather it for themselves. Think for a moment, if the kings of Europe and the Orient learn of this thing, what will they do to possess it? To possess the power to change history, to rule the world? Nothing, they will stop at nothing!"
His voice is low but passionate, the speech of an orator.
"You say this will lead to enlightenment - to truth. How? You may return to the past, see the wonders of Rome for yourself, but how will any others know what you say is true? Will you turn yourself into a prophet Habiba? Will you claim that you stand at the right hand of God himself? How else will you explain this knowledge? You will be burned as a witch or tortured for your secrets - and even if you succeed, even if you bring your truth into the world, then whose truth is it? Is what you see and say better than that of anyone else? If you say that Christ was no god, only a man because you have seen him, or that the Musselman's prophet was a deluded fake, why are you correct? Does the evidence of your eyes count for more than the faith of thousands? How can you claim this for yourself?"
Lucius is pacing by now, clearly agitated as the words spill from him.
"This pyramid is a danger, far more so than gunpowder or any of the wonders of this age. There will be wars over this artifact, for generations to come. You MUST see reason. If we do not destroy it..."
He trails off, as though the prospect is too much to even contemplate. "We must."
"'Young lady?'" Habiba says incredulously.
"There lies the problem in its simplest form. You are all to eager to take your assumptions as facts and act on them, as are most people. The easy path is so tempting that all others appear inconceivable. 'Faith' is little more than the purest expression of that! You are willing to take a statement as fact and search no farther, and confronted with even the POSSIBILITY that you have assumed a lie as truth you hasten to destroy the object or person that may enlighten you. As your ever so 'kind' and 'righteous' compatriots are. Burn me as a witch? For speaking the truth? So be it; I'll not live a lie. Perhaps the world will have changed by the time the great wheel grants me new life again."
"We know full well your Church is corrupt, to the absolute HIGHEST echelons of power, the Pope himself! And yet you do not stop to think, just for a moment, that this might mean you were misled, or otherwise mistaken about aspects of your faith? Even should your god prove real, and your blind faith is not generating its own power -a thing I've seen before, mind, conviction is its own source of divine energy in strong enough concentration- could not your teachings have been corrupted by a Pope who has fallen to evil, or the simple mistakes of man reading into a god's intention that which isn't there?"
"You stand within something that could prove your Church's arrogant conviction that it is the 'one true faith of the one true God'...or disprove it. IS not that knowledge valuable of its own sake? And the same goes for anything learned by this travel. Whether people believe you or not is their choice, but why continue to let them believe a lie if there's even a chance you could prove otherwise? Are they children to be placated by false platitudes for the rest of their lives? If that is how you see the rest of the world, no wonder your Church is so easily cast into darkness, that they would WILLINGLY ELECT the unliving spawn of the creature that is the ultimate enemy of your religion!"
"As for the fact that kings will covet the power of this device? Certainly. Gods and kings ever desire more power. Should we burn the whole world to deny them their desire? Cast down any scholar on the brink of a new discovery because their king might use that power for ill? Knowledge and the devices that provide it ever have the potential for evil to be done in their name. And that is why people like us stand against them."
"I do not argue that the device must not be PROTECTED from the rapacious appetites of amoral or immoral people, but to destroy it simply to deny the CHANCE that some harm may come from it, ignoring the overwhelming good that may come instead, is shortsighted. Are you one of those who would champion the burning of a village's healer for a witch, ignoring that the village itself slowly falls sick and dies without her presence? Because it is a similar scenario. The things we could learn could change the world for the BETTER. Medicine of the future that can cure any ill! Magic primal from the deepest depths of the past which can perform miracles man can barely dream of today! And those are just barest dusting of sand atop the dune of the potential for good from this device."
"And you wish to throw it all away, as I said, out of fear?"
"If so, perhaps this is not the band of heroes I thought it was."
In the Ninth Canto of Hell, frozen waist-deep in the Hellish ice, Satan leers with evil satisfaction at the conflict he has sown among the foes of his son, the Antichrist, by leading them to discover the Black Pyramid of Kronos in Lost Atlantis...
In Infernal: HAHAHAHAHAAA!!! GOOD!! GOOOOD!! FEEL THE HATE FLOW THROUGH YOU...
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Johann looks back and forth between Lucius and Habiba. He is wise in the ways of the world, but no intellectual, and the arguments are confusing. He does know two things clearly, though.
"I will follow Lucius' lead no matter what, even if it brings me into Hell itself! Cardinal Lucius is a good man, wise and upright! He has led me and Zag through thick and thin! And you... blue skinned one..."
... It is clear he has no idea who or what Habiba is..."...Shall not misspeak of our Pope! That is... blasphemous talk! A good man. I've met him myself! Talked to him! Many times! He is honorable and true. You speak of things YOU DO NOT KNOW!"
His piece said, Johann stops talking, but he is on the brink of losing his temper entirely after the insults to the Pope.
Ihrin looks over the door holding up her hand to halt as she overlooks the doors.
[dice=Perception]1d20+21
She looks to see the first door on the left for traps.
"One must always check a door, not only for a lock but for any surprises...And no Zag, not the kind that makes a naked lady appear"she chuckles making sure all is well bekinfore moving to the next door.
Ihrin detects no traps on the ivory door.
"no traps on that door, let's try the next"
"Look here you two, The debate is over. We are out of our watery prison and somewhere new. For now, it is a means of convenience to get us one place to another. After that, we shall discuss this again. If you can't agree upon it so help me I will tie you both up and let you dangle over a large fire pit. If that doesn't work then neither of you will get a say on what we do with it got it!"She says looking at the two like petulant children.
"no traps on that door, let's try the next"
Ihrin finds no traps on any of the doors in the corridor.
The Rabbi listens closely to the arguments put forth by Lucius, Habiba, and Johann. After considering their words he answers, ”Habiba is wrong about a great many things, but she is correct in thinking that it would be hasty to try to destroy the pyramid right away.”
”Have you not considered, Cardinal, that perhaps the Holy One has entrusted this tool to us? Nero has had centuries to grow in power and collect artifacts to aid his work... to defeat him we may need a resource like this. And who is it that commands the storms and the seas which delivered us to the pyramid? Is it not the Lord of Hosts who brought us down to the depths in order to lift us up?”
”It is incumbent upon us to show ourselves worthy of the charge: in accepting the responsibility, and in exercising it with wisdom and restraint.
He pauses for a moment then adds, ”Think of how many valuable resources have been lost to history... the ark of the Covenant vanished when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem...the famed cup of your Rabbi Yeshua was lost after his crucifixion... the whole library of Alexandria was assumed destroyed in the flames... perhaps those things all disappeared because we retrieved them for use in our divinely appointed task...”
The Rabbi listens closely to the arguments put forth by Lucius, Habiba, and Johann. After considering their words he answers, ”Habiba is wrong about a great many things, but she is correct in thinking that it would be hasty to try to destroy the pyramid right away.”
”Have you not considered, Cardinal, that perhaps the Holy One has entrusted this tool to us? Nero has had centuries to grow in power and collect artifacts to aid his work... to defeat him we may need a resource like this. And who is it that commands the storms and the seas which delivered us to the pyramid? Is it not the Lord of Hosts who brought us down to depths in order to lift us up?”
”It is incumbent upon us to show ourselves worthy of the charge: in accepting the responsibility, and in exercising it with wisdom and restraint.
He pauses for a moment then adds, ”Think of how many valuable resources have been lost to history... the ark of the Covenant vanished when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem...the famed cup of your Rabbi Yeshua was lost after his crucifixion... the whole library of Alexandria was assumed destroyed in the flames... perhaps those things all disappeared because we retrieved them for use in our divinely appointed task...”
The captain of the Turkish scouts quietly orders his men to break camp and prepare to ride back to where the main force of Turks was encamped near the river.
This is something out of my scope... I must report what I saw to my superiors... to the Sultan himself! ... This could make me famous... but what in Allah's creation is this thing!?
The two dozen scouts quickly return to their horses and break camp, and within minutes of their encounter with the mystifying Black Pyramid, they are galloping hard for the river...
Meanwhile, in the demiplane of Gooseland (accessible via the Black Forest):
The Big Bad Wolf has come to howl and huff and puff at Rapunzel's Tower, but try as he might, he cannot blow it down!
*HUFF!!* *PUFF!!* ... AAAWHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ... Rats! The little pig's house blew over like nothing! Guess I'll need to figure out another way to get my paws on that tasty little Rapunzel...
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Johann, feeling angry at everyone and then feeling angry at himself for feeling angry, goes over to sulk in the corner.
Too many friends have gone missing. And I miss my home. And all of these great heroes are arguing. I miss the Fox. He was an untrustworthy bastard, but he was my friend, and he always needed me.
Johann goes over to Mwikali. "I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE FOX." He realizes who he is talking to and quiets down. "Can you use your magics to find him? He always gets in trouble when I'm not around."
Meanwhile, in the demiplane of Gooseland (accessible via the Black Forest):
The Big Bad Wolf has come to howl and huff and puff at Rapunzel's Tower, but try as he might, he cannot blow it down!
*HUFF!!* *PUFF!!* ... AAAWHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ... Rats! The little pig's house blew over like nothing! Guess I'll need to figure out another way to get my paws on that tasty little Rapunzel...
Rapunzel shouts down at the Big Bad Wolf: Go away, you scoundrel! Oh! How I wish my dear, sweet Johann were here right now! He'd take care of you, Big Bad Wolf! He'd rip off your head and use your skull as a jack-o-lantern to go trick or treating come Halloween!
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"I have stood in the presence of Our Saviour, Habiba Al-Sahim" Lucius responds firmly. "Faith needs no proof, it is pure in and of itself. I believe in God the father slightly, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son who died for our sins. I have believed in them and served them my entire life, as have millions before. I do not deny the faults of Mother Church." As he says this the Cardinal drops somewhat, looking more like an old man than any of you have ever seen him before.
"For twenty years I have worked, to weed the Cult of Lucifer from amongst my brother cardinals. I know full well the harm that has been caused. The destruction of the Templar Order is a black stain on the church and there have been others. I do not claim perfection or greater knowledge than you. The Rabbi is a far more intelligent man than I, but Habiba I have experience. I have looked into the hearts of men, women and demons and there is more of the last inside us all than we would ever choose to admit. We could do great God with this pyramid perhaps, but the evil that we could do with it matches it tenfold. You are right, I am afraid. Afraid for all humanity at the consequences of this artefact. It is too much, no mortal should possess it."
He turns to Alexei and bows. "You are wise Rabbi, a true teacher and I admire your intellect. The points you raise are good ones but I cannot agree with them. The Lot for Hosts is mighty, but so is the Evil One and we might serve his cause as easily as The Lord's. You know of Me know I do not doubt. He consumed his children through fear of their power and after his death still the Titans turned against Olympus, wielding weak s that make the great Holy Wars look like children's scuffles."
He breaks off, ignoring Mwikali's threat and shaking his white-haired head.
"Please forgive my outburst. I am... over tired. I shall retreat and pray for guidance. The Lord be with you all." With that he departs the bridge...
From the side, on a small switch sits the little Fay Lord, He seems to be eating what looks like a Scottish oat cake. How he got there unseen would be hard to say. Yet there he was. He pipped up.
"You know I had a story telling contest one with the feller you call Christ. We all know him as the little Rabbi back then, because he was shot for a human. I tell ya he was a great story tell he was. Gave me a run for me words so he did."
he finishes his cake and licks his fingers.
"You know he has some big ideas as well. He said wanted to shake up the rabbinic rule. See, he was not so happy with all the pay to pray stuff the priests at the temples did back then. Paying to get closer to the holy place. Paying to be washed clean. Paying for clean clothing, paying with clean coins. Do you know you had to change your coins for new ones each time you want a layer into the temple. And they did not do far exchange, No ya had to pay the money changing a commission. Deeper cleaner and more costly. And if you where poor, or sick or ill. No chance, they would not even let you in the door. Ya had to wait outside and touch the walls for your bit of god time."
He spins on the spot and points up.
"Ya see back then they believed if you where sick, God must have made you so because you or your family had done bad things. Think on that, ya fall over, hurt your leg and everyone points and says you or your kin have done evil and ya deserve it. Only way out and to get better, is get in the temple and be proclaimed well by a Rabbi. Getting once more in the faiths good graces. If you did not then no one would deal with you. Cus your trained right and that can be contagious. So it was pay or be ruined. Back the I seen it myself, 100s of beggars sitting around wanting money to try and get into the cleaning process and to the temple true, get back into gods good books with gold."
He jumps up and into the air.
"Now the little Rabbi, he could see the injustice of this. The Rabbis back then getting rich off the temples and saying who is and is not clean by god. Holding all the faithful to ransom just to go have a chat with there god. You want to talk corruption o the Rabbi family's back then, rolling in coin they where."
He spins in the air.
"Do you know the Rabbis build a road just for them leading strait into the counting house in the temple of Yerushaláyim. Not the inner sanctum, no the counting house."
He lands once more and with his hands behind his back, Walks back and forth.
"Well the little Rabbi goes on about this day and night. Saying how wrong it is and how his god is everyone and is everywhere, not just a few temples. How paying the temples all this coin is bad, how the sick where still worthy of his gods blessings."
Lord P stops and clicks his finger.
"So he has this idea. See under rabbinic law, when a Rabbi says someone is well and fit to go into the temple, well then they are alowed, no ifs or butts, they can go. Its the law, so he goes to the sick and ill and says. 'Your all better now, so off you go to the temple' and the other Rabbis have to let them in."
Lord P crosses his legs and sits down.
"Wellll... you can imagine how upset the other Rabbis are at the little Rabbi GIVING AWAY, what they worked so hard to sell. They have to end this, kill him if they must."
Jumps up again.
"But the little Rabbi is smart, he has the group, his possels he calls em, they travel with with him and protect him from the other Rabbi s. Kind of followers come Body guard. Also he keeps moving about, Even staying in normal peoples homes to keep out of harms way. As he dose he tells everyone, you don't have to pay to get to meet god. You don't have to pay to go to heaven. So soon the little Rabbi has more followers, I mean 100s and 100s going where ever he goes. "
Lord P takes off again.
"That's when I met up with him. I heard about him and wanted to see what he was like. 1st time I seen him, he was sanding in a street with his hand on some poor woman with no legs. See he like to talk to his followers outside. He says to me once"
Lord P put one a voice.
"You will never find god in a man made place, no, you have to go stand outside in gods work to find god' I liked that about him, very to the point. To tell you the truth he was a really nice man, real caring for the little feller. Liked a good joke and loved a good fish supper."
Lord P zips about then lands and looks sad.
"Well like all good things they come to the end. You see organized religion has to many making a living of it, and when someone like the little Rabbi comes alone and starts giving away what your selling for free. Well that's competition that just has to go. I heard they paid off one of his body guards who fingered him some local warlord and he was put to death. Sad really, he told a good joke that lad."
Lord P looks at Cardinal Lucius d'Borja and he puts on a voice again.
"He said to me once. 'If you want to know where real corruption is Perpreen, Look for those selling god for coin'."
Lord P then nods his head and is up in he air again, and off to look into rooms.
The Rabbi gives Johann a sidelong glance and shakes his head. "Fourteen-hundred years and not a one of you has bothered to learn what a rabbi is," he huffs, "it means 'teacher' and, until synagogues rose in importance after Nero had the second Temple razed, we mostly instructed our families and neighbors or became itinerants like Yeshua. It wasn't rabbis that were collecting anything at the Temple, that was the Korahim and the Levites; it wasn't rabbis that had Yeshua arrested, that was the Sanhedrin- the religious council that feared that his willingness to be identified as the son of David was about to cause a violent uprising in Jerusalem; and, it wasn't rabbis who executed him: that was the occupying Roman government which apparently shared their fear."
The little lord haired this and said back.
"I may have simplified things a little, but I will say this. Caiaphas and the rest of the Sanhedrin lived in some really big houses."
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Johann spends the evening during camp pacing, still upset by the arguing in camp. But clearly one thing dominates his thoughts.
"Fox was hunted by assassins from his home. They wanted him for a bounty. And now he is missing! Who knows where he went! And he was our friend! It is only right that we search for him! We must!"
Habiba opens her mouth to respond angrily to Mwikali and Johann, but is cut off by Johann's second pronouncement:
"I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE FOX."
Her eyes widen slightly in horror and shame.
"In all the excitement I'd...forgotten about him. Hold a moment, I'll see what I can do."
Habiba roots through her pack for parchment, a quill, and paper.
Seated on the floor, she sets quill to ink, then to paper, and sits quietly for a moment. Letting go of the quill, she stays seated and enters a meditative trance, as the quill begins to write of its own accord...
Questions:
1.) Where is the Ogon Fox?
2.) Is the Ogon Fox still alive?
3.) Is the Ogon Fox in immediate danger?
Habiba opens her mouth to respond angrily to Mwikali and Johann, but is cut off by Johann's second pronouncement:
"I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE FOX."
Her eyes widen slightly in horror and shame.
"In all the excitement I'd...forgotten about him. Hold a moment, I'll see what I can do."
Habiba roots through her pack for parchment, a quill, and paper.
Seated on the floor, she sets quill to ink, then to paper, and sits quietly for a moment. Letting go of the quill, she stays seated and enters a meditative trance, as the quill begins to write of its own accord...
[dice=Linguistics]1d20+20
Questions:
1.) Where is the Ogon Fox?
2.) Is the Ogon Fox still alive?
3.) Is the Ogon Fox in immediate danger?
Habiba's psychic call is answered by... something... which writes the answers to her questions with ghostly hand manipulating feather quill...
It writes in English:
Edo... Yes... Yes...
In fact, that very moment, in fox form, Fox was hiding in a cherry tree in the Shogun's gardens as dozens of merciless samurai and ninja hunted him...
Orpheus was perched on a nearby branch, his little heart beating rapidly with fear and adrenaline...
Damn you, Irish Farewell! I'm going to use you for kindling, you rotten, motheaten piece of... Damn It! I wish Johann was here by my side...
The Shogun blames pirates and other scum like vigilante kitsune Ogon Fox for the recent catastrophic return of Gojira and Mosura to devastate Japan. He plans to capture, torture, and execute as many such miscreants as possible until the gods forgive the people for their inequities...
In Japanese to his samurai and ninja: The outlaw vigilante Ogon Fox is somewhere in my domain! My official astrologers have forecast It! I want him found and captured! When he is found, bring him before me to hear my pronouncement! GO!!
”I haven’t learned to scry on people yet...” Alexei answers as he watches Habiba with great interest, ”but if there are any spellbooks in the library I may be able in a few minutes.”
4.) Is it possible to help or save him from this danger?
5.) Is it possible to use the power of the Pyramid's time travel to eliminate the time lost from going to Edo?
6.) How dangerous is the time traveling ability to use?
7.) Who or what is causing the danger to the Ogon Fox?
Habiba hesitates for just a moment, but in the absence of any more pressing questions coming to mind, she decides to sate her own curiosity.
8.) Who are you?
4.) Is it possible to help or save him from this danger?
5.) Is it possible to use the power of the Pyramid's time travel to eliminate the time lost from going to Edo?
6.) How dangerous is the time traveling ability to use?
7.) Who or what is causing the danger to the Ogon Fox?
Habiba hesitates for just a moment, but in the absence of any more pressing questions coming to mind, she decides to sate her own curiosity.
8.) Who are you?
... Yes... Yes... Very... Tyranny... Baldur...
To Mwikali: BLEEEP blip BLOOP BOOP squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?
The clockwork servants soon begin a methodic tour of the Black Pyramid, starting in the Bridge .
This central vaulted chamber is circular (~60 ft in diameter) and has a domed ceiling (~30 ft high at apex). The obsidian walls glow with inner luminosities like a starlit sky. At the center lies the helm, a throne and desk, both formed of gleaming hematite, with a complex array of knobs, dials, levers, switches, buttons and crystal displays like mirrors or scrying glass on the surface of the desk and the arms of the throne. This is the wondrous and elegant helm that the Rabbi is harnessed to.
2. Cabin: This circular pod-like chamber is spacious (~20 ft diameter) and yet cozy, like an egg or cocoon. There are four bedframes projecting from the seamless concave obsidian walls, each large enough for a large creature. The bedding is a mattress of soft, comfortable material almost like live flesh that customizes form and temperature to suit the sleeper through a symbiosis that is established by contact with the mattress.
3. Cabin: Same as the other (area 2).
4. Feast Hall: This spacious (~30 ft diameter) chamber features a long semicircular banquet table of sleek white alabaster and long benches (also semicircular and of alabaster). As many as 30 medium-sized creatures could be comfortably seated. As in other chambers, the obsidian walls glow with inner lights. There are another pair of clockwork servants stationed here, who are eager to serve food and drink to hungry and thirsty patrons.
5. Kitchen: This chamber contains worktables of smooth obsidian, and is furnished with a variety of utensils and instruments useful in preparing and cooking food. Here there are four strange and wondrous horn-shaped cornucopia fashioned of some opalescent material, which the helpful clockwork servants reveal can be commanded to produce any kind of nutritious food in apparently endless quantity... the world's hungry could be fed indefinitely by these artifacts alone! There are also miraculous ovens that can be commanded to ignite or be extinguished.
6. Larder: This chamber is almost freezing. Here are stored many compartmentalized crates or lockers for preserving perishable items. Exploring what is within these could be an adventure in itself!
"Also it seems our metal friends here have offered to give us a tour.' She adds to them as the metal man speaks.
"We could use this Pyramid to go and try to save him. Just need to figure out where he is at and then spring him." She says as she looks at the Johann and the others.
"And we could return back here right at the moment we left. or an hour later to be safe"
Ihrin finishes with each door.
She then looks to test if they are locked.
Habiba's eyes snap open, pure white, with the pupils slowly fading in over the course of several minutes.
"I have made contact with an entity that refers to himself as 'Baldur'. One of the Norse pantheon, I believe."
"He has informed me that the Ogon Fox is in danger, but still alive, in a place called 'Edo'. We still have time to save him, and the Pyramid's powers CAN be used to return to a time not long after we've left, though he warns it is very dangerous."
"When I asked what the Ogon Fox was in danger FROM, he merely replied 'Tyranny'. The king of 'Edo', or a local lord? I must admit I'm not familiar with the location."
She hands the paper to anyone who wishes to see the conversation's transcript afterward.
7. Laboratory: This circular domed chamber has worktables of smooth obsidian lit from within by magical luminosity like starlight. An exhaustive array of instruments and machines of unimaginably arcane purpose are stored in recesses in the concave walls over the worktables. This appears to be some kind of laboratory or workshop.
8. Crafting Shop/Manufactorium: This circular domed chamber is similar to the last, with worktables and a bewildering variety of tools, machines and instruments of manufacturing. These are artifacts in themselves, every bit as wondrous as Ogon Fox's organetto of building, or the decanter of endless water, or the cornucopia in the kitchen of the Black Pyramid. Any form of inorganic material can be generated here, in whatever shape or form or function the mind can imagine! The crafting potentials are infinite...
9. Library: This domed chamber is a wonder indeed! The adventurers' minds spin when they begin to realize what is stored herein, as described in clicks and whirs by the clockwork tour guide: a library containing shards of wand-sized crystals that store knowledge like scrolls store magic spells! There are thousands of them here inset in the concave walls... All knowledge in the universe is here... somewhere...
10. Scriptorium: After absorbing all that omniscience in the god-library, there's no better place to sit down and write about your new inspirations and plans than this vaulted chamber. Lecterns of obsidian underlit by an inner glow provide ideal writing surfaces.
11. Council Chamber: After you've written up your latest brilliant plan in the scriptorium, why not convene with all of your associates at this elegant council chamber to talk about it for the next few hours? There is enough seating for 30 medium creatures in the form of seemingly seamless reclining chairs formed of the same semiorganic material as the beds in the cabins.
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Johann anxiously peers over Habiba's shoulder. "Is he alive? We are going to find him, right? Edo. Edo. Edo. I think that the Fox said he was from the Far East. I wonder if Edo is in the Far East? Rabbi, can you pilot this contraption to Edo? See Cardinal? This machine is helpful already, if it can help us save the Fox. I think we need to use it first and when we are done with it, we destroy it properly."
Lord P jumps for joy when he sees the Library, and stops there, he goes looking for an index of contents to read up on some subjects. He gets a little frustrated not finding written one until he discovers the Library has a mind of its one and can talk. He starts asking it where such and such a subjects crystal is.
Odd mutterings come from his directions.
"Did you know Backed bean tins are not made form Tin, any idea what a Backed bean tin is?"
"In 2278 the Flinins won their 14 Space G cricket cup. Whats Space G cricket, who are the Flinins and where is 2278?"
he goes on like this
When Lord Perpireen's immediate and whimsical fey curiosities about several random other subjects have been satisfied by the crystals in the round library, he gets down to the business of researching Kyoto, and uncovers several bits of lore regarding the imperial capital of Japan that might be useful in the quest to rescue the Ogon Fox...
Ashikaga Shogunate, the dynasty responsible for the bounty on Fox's head...
Ashikaga Yoshinori is the current Shogun, and grandson of the Shogun who originally set the bounty on the Fox's father's head and his descendents for seven generations...
Kyoto City, the imperial capital of Japan, where the Ashikaga Shogunate reside in their Hana-no Gosho ("Flower Palace") on Muromachi Street...