Beneath the Mason Ruins, Part V

Koen and I were trapped inside a magic circle, and Koen was doubly trapped in a cage that had slammed shut from the energy unleashed when we tried to break free. The glow of my eyes illuminated the dusty stone where the sigils lay. Were they a Qabalistic enchantment I might have been able to manipulate the They were a Runic alphabet, of which I was not familiar. was hesitant to damage the sigils with my weaponry, for fear that the noise would summon the homunculus and its floating spawn.

Koen paced the edges of the cage. "This cage isn't bloted to the floor...she must have unscrewed it.." He tapped the ankh at his collar with a claw, "..probably with this."

"That's why the gate opens up past the edge of the circle..but that's not enough to get us out." I pulled some metal tubing from a compartment in my armour and attached it to my wrist. I spent the next hour cutting open the metal of the gate lock, using my inner furnace to power the blowtorch. Koen crouched in the other, looking away.

"Qli..remember thse little bunny golem things? They walked into the bars before they came through..I see the tracks. They keep acting like the cage is in the middle and have to adjust at the last minute. That's why they put the food tray and the chamberpot right next to each other in the corner..that's as close as they could get to where they were programmed to place them where the cage was supposed to be."

"The drones must be created with the same magic as the circle..which is why they can pass through.." I furrowed my brow.
"I have a plan.."

We waited for the drones to return for housekeeping. Judging from the decent size and quality of the meal..which Koen consumed in his spare time..Sumalee was getting two meals a day, assuming the drones were delivering enough food to keep her from starving. I did correct Koen, the meal may have tasted like chicken but I'm certain it was rabbit.

Eventually we heard the rhythmic tapping of the drone's waddling. Two drones would be coming. We only needed one. Koen waited until the last moment to swing open the gate, just as the drone was crossing the circle. The drone collided with the edge of the gate, but kept trying to walk through it in a straight line. I looked down at its footsteps, they were flailing helplessly in and out of the magickal boundary. I jumped of the roof of the cage and over the drone to the outside of the circle.

"Koen! Now!"

Koen bolted to my side. We were both free. I switched my hand attachments and blew a white cone of calcium carbonate into the drone's furnace in its belly, extinguishing its spark of animation. We drew our weapons and continued down the passage from which the humonculus had retreated.

Meanwhile, the second drone waddled past its inoperative double, bumped against the cage, sidestepped to walk through, retreived the tray of finished food, and waddled back the way it came.

Beneath the Mason Ruins, Part IV

I have struggled to describe the creature depicted in the last chapter. A floating mass of undulating tissue with a smattering of eyes and jaws, spewing out hungry biomasses that digest flesh at a touch then return to its creator to feed it like the queen bee and hive in one..like blood cells nourishing a heart. This monster exists in defiance of all laws of physics and biology..it had to be created by some evil genius. I must therefore refer to it as a homunculus.

This homunculus floated closer to by brother Koen and I as we froze in place. Koen was crouched inside the cage we had discovered, examining the defeated lock mechanism. I glanced down at the floor. The rectangular cage was wholly within a circle of glyphs inscribed into the dungeon stone. I took a short step backwards, bringing my entire body inside the enchantment. The gate of the cage rotated to the closed position with the faintest creak by its own weight.

"Koen.." I whispered. "Don't..move.."

The abomination hovered inches from me, just outside the engraving. Fluids drooled from its orifices over itself with a glistening sheen that steadily oozed to the floor. As it pulsed it radiated waves of heat laced with a damp, fetid odor. Haphazardly placed eyes stared back at me, the intent behind them unguessable. Was there something approaching intelligence behind those eyes? Or did it blindly accept us as a neko in a cage and a maintenance drone, as it expected to see?

Slowly it circled the perimeter of our barrier. A stray biomass drifted towards my face, then stopped in its tracks, spreading as if colliding with a physical barrier, then hurtling back as if struck by lightning. It made a beeline straight for the safety of the hivebeast's jaws. The homunculus finished circling us, then withdrew from the chamber back through the passage it had arrived in.

As the chamber again grew silent, I took a step forward, only to be repulsed back against the outer wall of the cage by a jolt of energy. Koen swung the gate open to leap to my aid, but the same explosion of light slammed the gate back in his face. I shudder to think what injuries he would have sustained had he been in contact with the bare metal.

I reached my arm through the bars to grab Koen's shoulder. He held my wrist tightly as I tried to tesseract us both out of the circle. I could get a lock on any of the landmarks in my memory bank.

Koen's ears drooped. "We're trapped?"

I sighed, and looked down at the floor. "Sumalee found a way out of the cage..and out of the circle. We have to find it as well. And quickly."

Remembering when Brother Fought Brother

The Civil War Ball was a smashing success, lag and all! The event was a promotion for the Battle of Fredricksburg Exhibit, hosted by the Caledon Library. Duchess Gabrielle Riel played old ballads from both the North and the South. Being a Doctor first and a Marylander (the Mason-Dixon line cut through my family estate) I was not one to take sides, making me the perfect Host.

In keeping with the customs of the time, dance cards were encouraged, though I was so lagged that by the time I walked to position the First Dance was over! But such travails are cheerfully accepted when everyone was enjoying themselves so immensely. So many lovely gowns! So many handsome outfits!


Here I am dancing with the winner of the prized for Best Dressed Lady, Nurse and Schoolmarm Annastina Christensen. Mr. Mako won the prize for Best Dressed Gent.



Here is a wider view, with my other dance partner, Miss Katrynn Severine, owner of Steelhead.

Beneath the Mason Ruins, Part III

I descended into the sinkhole by jetpack, and Koen leaped down after me. We followed the constructs as they scurried back and forth like ants. We passed through several chambers that had obviously one been used for scientific and medical research. The equipment..and apparently the unwilling subjects..had been hastily abandoned and left to their fates. The few scraps of documentation I did find made my shiver to the core. Obscure studies blending magic and science to improve the human race..this easily could have been purloined from my Father's lab, except the means to the ends were unspeakable. Father would never experiment on an unwilling subject! We saw many skeletons of both human and neko origin. There was even a case of small fairies impaled on pins like a butterfly collection.


Finally we arrived at the boiler room. The heat was stifling for my brother, but he said he smelled something familiar.


There was a cage, large enough for a human. We saw one of the golems waddle between the bars into the cage and replace the tray of rotting food with a tray of raw meat. Another one carried away an empty chamber pot. The automatons were blissfully ignorant to the fact that the front door of the cage was wide open and that the cage was empty.

Koen crouched, peering into the lock.

"Chicken bones. Works every time."

Just then we heard an inhuman roar from the far corridor. You would not believe what I saw unless I developed the image from my visual cortex. It was a large, pulsating amorphous blob with multiple mouths. As it floated into the room, bluish orbs escaped from one of its maws with methodic regularity while a trail of bright red orbs trailed behind, one of the sets of jaws on the best greedily swallowing them up.

If the orbs were some form of giant blood corpuscles, then this living hive was a giant heart!

too close to home

Thunder shakes the Foundation as torrents of rain sizzle and crackle across the surface of the Tesla generator on the roof. Qlippothic and Koen have submitted their report. My hands trembled as I read, shaking my head in disbelief as they revealed secrets I had done my best to shield from them. My children have defeated a threat greater than a dozen Jobiases..but the price was very high. To make matters worse the source of that threat is still at large. Even Bloodwing is concerned. He will never admit it, but I sense he fear. After the children's tale was done he bolted, wings stretched as he vanished from the balcony with a flash of lightning. I must assume he is hunting down the threat, or at worst, keeping a safe distance from us should he be the prey.

The Bloodwing Curse has returned with a twisted irony I still can barely fathom. I had the urge to pack my things and flee the Foundation, but where could I run? I will not sleep tonight. I will be sitting at my desk, pistol and wand at the ready, ears straining over the din of the storm to make out the hissing of snakes.

~Dr. Mason

Vision Corrected

Many thanks to Tensai for solving the wireframe problem..setting your vision distance from 128 meters to -1 is good for introspection but not for navigation.

We decided after the Town Meeting last night that events will be coordinated by a special committee. This should make the process run much more smoothly. I'm still in charge of hosting and searching for sponsors.

By the way, we still need a sponsor for Hippie Night on Friday. I'm not sure what Qli has in mind..

Qlippothic and Koen have been avoiding finishing their report. I would certainly like to know why.

~Dr. Mason

here and not here

Dr. Mason and I are on vacation. Sadly SL seems to have left my laptop in the dust. I can make out sihlouettes of the landscape through the fog of day but night is pitch black.

Using Wireframe vision I can see myself and the outlines of my surroundings..with the notable exception of the doors to the Foundation.

Other avatars remain invisible excepts as dots on the mini-map. Communication, thankfully, is as normal. Therefore I should be able to host Friday's Hippie Event at Steelhead. We should be home on Saturday in time for Father to host the Civil War ball. (Assuming SL itself is still working.)

My journal of the Mason investigation will continue when we get home. Some of these photos must be seen to be believed.

~Qli