934/NODE: Game of Souls E03

NODE: Game of Souls E03
Date of Scene:	07 November 2014
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	Node scene. Oh, and the Dark Lord is a woman.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, Tomoe, 38, Staren, 73, 151, 215, Theo Morrison, 347, 570

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Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    There is no gate today. No door and hallway acts as the entryway to the Node proper. Rather, all there is is a simple IP address - the IP behind the URL of Abstractum.Net - and a port therein, though port 111111 is technically not one that ANYONE should be using, right?

    That doesn't much matter. What's relevant for now is that when they join, even without Kirito doing any fussing with logins, the server recognizes him as the leader of a lobby; the others are forced into pending connections as they wait for him to approve them individually. And, apparently, to actually download the game client for this server. It looks like he still has control over who gets to access his Node! Just like anyone else. Even the Abstractum seem to be connecting, though they seem to be doing it on another port. It looks like they'll be along too.

    The game's a small download for multiversal broadbands. Upon full connection, several things are immediately obvious to the group. The first is that each of them are being given options to create or import characters. Those who have played ALO are given the option to import their characters; others are given ALO-like character creation options, and most (those among the group that are actually, you know, human) are given the default of presenting themselves as simple humans with their real-life appearance. Even those who have AmuSphere, and should not have their real-life appearance visible. Hmm. No classes or anything like that; one has to assume there's a certain degree of skill translation, or that it works like ALO, where all that skills do is let you equip a wider range of mostly-equal weaponry.

    Once everything is worked out, though, the group is going to find its spawning point is particularly unusual. It is... What appears to be a massive, dark throne room. Huge obsidian spikes from the ceiling and floor make massive, sweeping columns to support the chamber. Around the room is a ring of boiling lava that emits a soft, warm, cozy kind of heat, with a bridge leading over it from the main entrance, which is a carved stone door about five stories tall and extremely wide. Massive firey wrought-iron torches burn pitch, attached to the walls. It looks very, very much like a final boss room.

    There is also a humanoid figure here, who looks very much like a final boss sort of fellow. A titanic human, at least ten feet tall, clad in jet-black plate armor. It is the very cliche of the dark lord, with a shadowy helm that bares vicious spikes, intimidating pauldrons, sleek and cruel-looking gauntlets, and a powerful, black, burning aura, with a titanic mace clasped in one hand and two deep red fires visible under the helm. They sit on a throne at least a story tall, which bristles with black spikes.

    "Oh, welcome back." The Lord of Shadow says. Their gravelly voice and reverberating tones are familiar to Kirito and those who have joined before. Pure evil. But, friendly, like a co-worker, or a roommate. "Good to see you again. We're thankfully not being raided again at the moment, at least not more than we can handle. We've managed to prepare a few teleportation spells for you since your last visit. We've managed to replicate the one that my Archmage's assistant used to escape the tower destruction, to take you wherever he went, and we're at work on other locations that may be good to start on taking on the other 'players'. But is there anything else you're wanting to look into, or that we can help with?"

    Such a friendly evil overlord looking person.

Staren has posed:
    Staren arrives, as usual, as an avatar that looks just like himself if he beat up some Wayne Reynolds artwork and stole its clothes. This involves a coat worn over leather and a questionable number of belts. There are also goggles. On his left arm, of course, is Eureka, the brass-colored segmented gauntlet with an armored plate and wires running along the back and a blue crystal eye behind the wrist.

    On arrival, Staren gives the Lord of Shadow a friendly nod and a wave. "Good to hear. We've gathered some more information on the players, but we've yet to test a way to enter their realm. I was hoping to see if we could find the Archmage's Assistant... although, thinking of that... Why haven't they contacted you? Was there no procedure in place for the event of the Archmage's fall?"

Iria (215) has posed:
    Also arriving rather quickly is none other than Iria herself. Her avatar looks just like the one from ALO, although a few minor cosmetic changes have occurred. Aside from that, it's still the same Iria everyone knows and loves... or something to that effect. Regardless, Iria enters the area rather quickly and looks around, before seeing the Lord of Shadow. She gives a slight nod, but little else.

    When the Lord finishes speaking, Iria gives another nod, but says little else for the time being. Instead, she simply folds her arms and stands there, looking a tad bit on the impatient side at the moment. It seems she's eager to get things on.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley logs in, with the suitable animation for appearing in the game. She appears to be wearing that leather armor she tends to wear during certain adventures, and she has her longsword and daggers, but she also has a cape that covers most of her body, with only her lizardy toes visible under the lightly-swaying cloth.

    She opens her eyes, looking around with a mildly queasy look. The sensation of being brought to a digital world is not something she is used to yet, if she ever gets used to it. Her eyes peer through the glasses that are perched on her snout, the Abstractum known as Nom de Plume providing no sight assistance and instead there in case she needs to do odd concept-based copying and analysis.

    She turns to regard the great big 'final boss' fellow. "Hi," she greets, raising a gloves hand in greeting, flashing a smile in his direction.

    She looks over at Staren briefly, and then decides, "I agree with finding that Assistant. It may be a good idea to get everything in order here before we go deal with the players giving these people so much trouble." After this, she looks around for Kirito, wondering what his input on the matter is, if he has a differing opinion of what they should be doing. During this sweep, she examines the party as they arrive, carefully soaking in who is here and trying to recall what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frederica's avatar, as before, is that of the Cait Sith Frika. Not as good in a fight perhaps, but the avatar's flexible for investigation and has plenty of inventory space for the group's secondary intent.

    She grins up at the huge Dark Lord. For reasons, she actually seems to like the 'evil' one. "Has any progress been made on what we found last time?" she asks. "The cloak, the ... the spell..." she says, a bit hesitantly, not sure she remembers all details of what they'd found. Apparently the Dark Lord has learned a couple of teleportation spells and that's cool, but there might well be more. "Or... you know, players being too much of a pain?" she asks.

Kirito has posed:
    When Kirito materializes, it's as the Black Swordsman of Aincrad, not the Spriggan many people would know him as. Still, the appearance is close enough, and most people've been here already, would anyone NOT notice him?

    He has a friendly smile to show for the 'Lord of Shadow.' Reassuring and warm. But it only lasts for a few moments before he puts on a more serious expression, does a few stretches, checks over his equipment (he's got both Double Fault and Elucidator for his weapons... the crystal longsword 'Dark Repulser' is nowhere to be seen.)

    "Yeah, good to see you again too. So you had some luck deciphering the escape route... great! We'll use that then. Sooner or later the GM might notice he's out there somewhere. On the other hand, KING's not going anywhere." His tone turns sour when talking about that jerk...

    He does have one question though. The swordsman plants a hand on his hip. "The other thing we're looking into is pegging down the world where KING and the other 'players' are connecting from..."

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko Shinobu is fairly easy to recognize despite certain differences in her present appearance. Her ears are pointed, but her face is nearly identical, with the usual expression of calm even in the face of a Final Boss. Her hair is a touch darker, more steel-gray than silver, and she's got on some generic ALO-style armor that at least looks more mobile than her usual chain-and-plate. Most strange are the mechanical attachments at her back--they seem to serve as her wings, but they seem tooled and crafted rather than gossamer half-illusions. A kite shield and longsword complete the picture, slung and sheathed. Her abstractum, Koishin, doesn't precisely count as equipment, but she's also present on the girl's right wrist.

    Regarding questions posed, she allows others to speak. After looking around, she takes a few steps toward Kirito, crosses her arms, and waits.

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks at Kirito. "Pegging it down? We know where it is, it's inside this node." He waves his hand around. "The trick is figuring out a surefire way to /get/ there, though I have some ideas."

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo logs in with his usual ALO-style appearance: a white-haired, grey-eyed Leprechaun wearing a fantasy smith's idea of light power armor, with a big-ass hammer slung over his shoulder. Aetherwright is affixed to a spot on his breastplate, as per usual. It looks pretty snazzy amidst all the quasi-machinery.

"Escape spells? Sweet." Theo has kind of gotten used to the volcanic motif of the throne room. "I'd like a copy of that, if that's possible. Never know when you need to get out of the path of an enormous explosion."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "My mages believe it'd be irresponsible to follow you, but I'm coming with you. I'd like to speak to him myself, if you can find him. And if I can fit wherever he is." The Lord of Shadow says, to Staren. "Because you're right, he's had every opportunity to speak with me." There's a nod, and a heavy, thumping sort of noise as the massive armored figure stands up.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito unsheathes Double Fault and executes a swift little kata before sheathing the Abstractum again. Showing off a little, but all to make a point.

    "You're safe with us. What I'm worried about is, is everyone else here safe without you?"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I've looked into the issue of the cloak myself. It looks like it's some sort of autonomous weapon. Either the cloak isn't meant to be worn, or the enchantments on it are meant to work without the wearer doing anything."

    The Lord of Shadow's current top mage catches up with Frederica. "It's some sort of reverse-engineering of a highly weaponized enchanted artifact of some sort. We know that much, at least, but we're not sure what it means. Hopefully uou can look into it more in the field."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe was here once more again in the game of Souls it was a kinda twisted nightmare given the given the suffering of the native AI's the mobs as some might call them were all aware, had feeling and were flat out people. The players were the real monstera and it was quite disturbing to her once again she has to get used to the fact the noble king looks like he is the spawn of Sauron but hey she's getting used ot it. She doe sliten to the report at this point.

"You and your people have my thanks for all the work your doing to help us Lord of Shadow, I'm here to protectg you and your people as best I can."

She's a tank she's face Heathcliff after all. She muses if she gets a chance she should tell the king of the Dark Knight vs the evil Paladin.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The Lord of Shadow shakes their head as they start walking down the hallways leading off to the side of the main throne room. "I've no idea where they come from, just that it's some other world. There's a lot of rumors that say the Lord of Light opened the way there himself." They say, somberly.

    Their mage speaks up again. "If you can get rid of his three champions - the ones going after you now - permanently, you'll have your best chance at finding out... Something, about dealing with that. We can move a team capable of more study to the kingdom of light, determine where they originate from... Perhaps find some way to control who comes through, or at least stop more from coming."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "According to the time traveller who gave us this information, the escape spell was prepare well in advance. It sounds like a traitorous act to me, if I'm spealing honestly." The Lord of Shadow says, grumbling a little.

    "The It needs inscription far ahead of time, but I'll give you the information when we're back, sir." The mage who's accompanying them - he's a tall fellow, long hair, looks a little elvish - speaks up, to Theo.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I believe they'll be safe without me. Few people know I planned on leaving. My armor will let me recall to my throne if necessary." The Lord of Shadow says, nodding in a serious way to Kirito as they duck into the side room where a teleportation spellcircle has been inscribed on the ground. There's a nod to Tomoe. "I'll trust you to keep me safe in the meantime. Thank you for letting me come along."

    The spellcircle sits, ready for teleportation. The destination, of course, will be revealed shortly...

Theo Morrison has posed:
"Nothing wrong with a contingency plan," Theo remarks. He shrugs a little bit, and then nods at the elvish-looking man. "Awesome. I'll remember that. I'm Theo, by the way; no need for 'sirs'." He sticks out a gauntleted hand to shake. He'll follow along to the Convenient Teleportation Spellcircle in just a minute.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    "Right-o!" cries Frika happily, bouncing in a way wholly unlike her player's normally sedate and dignified manner. "Dibs on scouting!" she cries out, dashing for the teleportation circle, using her running speed to advantage as she sprints forward. She can't actually cast whatever spells are needed to ACTIVATE the circle, but given Cait Sith speed and her in-game skills she should be the first to go through... or among that group at the least.

Staren has posed:
    Staren seems surprised that the Lord of Shadow wants to come with them, but okay! The game's Final Boss is probably the NPC best able to defend themselves here, after all.

    "Leaving... where can people even go? How far does this land extend?" Staren wonders, then walks with them to the teleportation circle. "Are you prepared for the possibility that the Archmage's assistant betrayed you?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is keeping alert as she can at this point.

"No one playing an MMORPG expects someone of your job to go out and about."

Seriously they don't but she's also thinking anti world boss tactics. Well what tactices the players would uses and how to counter them some she discounts which would be to train hostile mobs givne the natives are people but PVP sabotaging them using abilities that would mess them up such as divine intervention in this one game he dat told her about. Many a tank who cheesed off htier healer found them self unhutable but unable to do /anything/ while they lost agro and the raid wiped. She also muses on taking out the clothies aka healers and mages first too.

"Thank you and hopefully we can make some progress together."

Iria (215) has posed:
    Cracking her knuckles and rolling her neck around a little, Iria nods as the teleportation circle appears. "Finally, we can get going!" She says, the impatience showing in her voice as she moves towards the teleportation device. She watches as Frika goes running in and raises an eyebrow while her eyes look upward. "Hooboy," She whispers to herself, before continuing. Apparently Iria is taking a serious tone with this as her sixth sense is telling her something isn't right.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
So yes, Noble Six has actually been here this whole time. She's been trying to figure out the inventory system and seems to have been struggling with it for a few minutes. Soon enough, however, she has outfitted herself with a decent set of armor, that full face helmet and the bow she picked up last time they were here.

"Alright. All good to go."

She takes the bow into her hands and moves to catch up with the rest of the group. She'd been catching the outside edges of the conversation, so she knows they'll need to escort the Lord of Shadows. That is probably easier than it sounds, she would be the first to admit.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Frederica is the first through the hijacked teleportation line.

    The exit spellcircle is in a small side-room of a rickety-looking house interior environment. Dark, unlit, creaky old wood floors and walls. Definitely built hastily, and it'd be impossible to see if the spellcircle below wasn't glowing.

    Beyond the door is a crowded combinaton living space and magical workshop. Thaumaturgic equipment lays strewn about on tables, a crappy little futon is sitting in the corner near a small pile of food items and healing potions, and there's a few knives out and about. A section of the room where the low ceiling is damaged reveals that this is underground; no doubt the safehouse section of some more innocent-seeming structure above.

    There are several glass cases containing oddly flickering constructs that need more examination to see their proper nature. Alongside these are several large pieces of softly glowing wood-carved headgear chunks strewn over a table. One table in particular has a large quantity of glowing white flat objects on it, with strange writing on them... Rickety stairs on the opposite side of the room lead to, presumably, the less deceptive side of a false wall.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "The Kingdom of Shadow is made up of a great deal of land, though we've lost entire territories and a whole continent to the Kingdom of Light since the arrival of the 'Players'. I can show you the geography at some point when we're back." The raspy, gritty voice of the Lord of Shadow says. "As for the betrayal, nobody's ever prepared for that. I'll do what I can to give them fair justice for whatever violations of their duty they've made." The Lord of Shadow teleports through as well, though the low ceiling means they have to hunch over something fierce now, and cram their way through the door a little clumsily.

Staren has posed:
    Staren suddenly wonders, as he steps through, if the mage's assistant could have escaped to the physical world...

    But it's soon clear that that's not the case, unless things are very weird...

    "I wonder why those potions aren't in his inventory?" Staren muses, and then he's drawn to the mysterious glass cases. What could be in there?

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley follows Frederica through the teleportation spell, making no further input on the matter of where they're going. She does make a grunt as the Lord of Shadow gets in the way, mostly from the effort of moving around him. In lieu of any conversation, she quickly assesses the new environment, frowning at the state of it. As someone who has a lot of practice in setting up a magical workshop, she has some things to nitpick about the place. But seeing as it's an assistant, she makes no audible remarks about it. Instead, she lets herself get distracted by the first oddity she comes across when scouting the first room.

    She steps up to look at the wooden headgear. She furrows her brow, considering what concept to check for.

    "Conceptual Sight."

    "These might be reverse-engineered NerveGears." She checks for the concept of, say, VR and connection capability, since this topic JUST came up a few minutes ago, and the convenience of finding the person researching this would be absolutely uncanny.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito's satisfied by this answer, so he nods agreeingly at the Lord and heads with the otehrs for the teleport zone. "A betrayal would explain why he's not come around. So might being on the run. I'm hoping it's the latter, though we'll have a hard time finding in that case." Yeah, he'd been wondering about that too. But maybe this assistant is more than he seems, or is continuing research... or something really important... maybe.

    "What's this about the Lord of Light opening a portal though?"

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Once they'er through, Kimiko decides to take point. They've got a lot of elites here, but that also means a lot of things could go wrong. There's supposed to not be anyone else here, but what kind of person trusts reasoning like that? Paranoia can be healthy. Besides, there's probably interesting things in any adjoining rooms, too.

    Giving Koishin a friendly rub (something like ruffling a younger friend's hair, in her mind) for the assistance, she makes her way, sword drawn, up to the next floor.

Iria (215) has posed:
    Once they're through, Iria takes a look at things after she gets accustomed to the fact that it's a little cramped in here. She grits her teeth a little as she takes a look around, trying to move for some breathing space. As she surveys the general area, trying to take in what's here. Her eyes stop at the unusual headgear, and she frowns a little, lowering an eyebrow. "What's this?" She wonders aloud as she walks over to take a look at it.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    LIMBS

    This is a familiar thing, or at least, not something that's too much of a major revelation. Staren will find these are even more rudimentary. They're wireframe hands, wireframe arms leg-sections, nothing but hitboxes. They're flickering softly, producing their own mild light. It looks like the traitor might have been trying to recreate what was being studied at the Archmage's tower...

    "It would seem that our potential traitor did take something valuable. Perhaps he intended to finish the work his colleagues were doing. These are newer than the destruction of the tower. More rudimentary, though." Eureka speaks up briefly, with a concerned tone.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Conceptual Sight." Nom de Plume speaks in unison with Ainsley. The data recovered from the headgear is unusual, though. Her hunch was completely accurate, it seems, at least to a degree. They definitely are NervGears, or, at least, the concepts Ainsley is searching for - "immersion" and "control" - is found. The enchantments on these are hastily-built, and designed to work with the natives here, though.

Staren has posed:
    "They were making NerveGears?!" Staren looks surprised at this revelation -- he glances at the headgear, but Nom de Plume has it, so he looks to the glass cases. And blinks. "An... they were building an artificial avatar... Of course, they'd need a NerveGear to control it..." Staren looks back at the Lord of Shadow. "I wonder if the fake Player and the Cloak were meant to be used together?" Then he wanders over to the flat white objects with writing on them and scrutinizes them. Half expecting computer code, at this point...

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Iria's own examination of the headgear finds something else. Her own practical BOUNTY HUNTER EXPERIENCE is giving her enough awareness of the wood here to lock down specific regions of forest where it might have been recovered from; potentially useful information in TARGET HUNTING, should the group seek to bring the traitorous NPC to justice.

Theo Morrison has posed:
Theo eventually follows through the convenient teleporty surface after making his greetings to the elvish guy. He's so used to planeshifting himself that using a device to do it is kind of weird. Fortunately, doing so in games is way less so.

Theo takes one look around and goes for the things on the table. He wants to check out the glowy writing stuff, in part because he suspects they'll be menus. He spots the other objects, but he doesn't need to physically examine those, probably. "This is weird... Aetherwright, any insights? Similarities to the fake player we found?"

Kirito has posed:
    now that they're in what seems to be a mage's workshop, Kirito decides to have a look around. Especially at the headgear chunks... and DOUBLY so when Ainsley announces what she does. "reverse engineered NerveGears?!" ... from WITHIN VR? What the...

    Kirito's surprised by this to say the least. What could it mean if she's right? He rubs at his chin with a now troubled expression... "... For the fake player project... I get it. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, Staren."

    He wanders over to the nearby glass cases and their flickering contents to get a look at THEM next...

Noble Six (38) has posed:
It's a relatively small room, and Noble Six isn't really a small person, so she tries to keep out of the way. She figures there's a lot of people who are a lot better qualified for this sort of thing than her. Though she does sift through some of the papers that are near to where she's standing, in case anything looks important enough to give to Staren or Ainsley.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    A troubled remark, "These are VR control units." Ainsley leans in to squint at them, checking for a sign of workmanship that she cannot otherwise spot with her Conceptual Sight or a cursory lookover. "The fake Player may, in fact, be connected to this." She leans back and looks toward Theo, her brows raising. She looks over to Iria with some interest, since she was giving them a lookover.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe Says "Humm the Kingdom of Light is it entirely player based?"

She wonders for a moment ot guesses the leader of it might be imporant at htis point she keep moving along now in the work shop she starts looking about trying to see if she can find anything that might be of use to them.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    There is method to Frika's madness, of course. Mind you there's probably at least a hint of actual madness, but not entirely the bad sort. When she'd originally designed an ALO character she knew she had little time to develop her skills, to contribute. She'd built a scout, emphasizing skills such as running, perception, and animal handling.

    Feeling the need to help, especially with so many people here, she literally leaped at the chance. Only to be somewhat disappointed as she finds herself in an enclosed room. Oh well... at least she's able to make sure the room is free of hostile enemies!

    "Who IS this Lord of Light?" Frika asks as she heads for the rickety stairs to continue 'scouting', senses tuned. "Another Pure? The big bad boss? Will we have to deal with a god once we've defeated the trio?"

Iria (215) has posed:
    After taking a few moments to look over the headgear, she looks to the others and says, "This... the wood for this headgear..." She pauses for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase what she has to say. Then she says, "I've isolated the area of the forest as to which this wood came from. Or rather, a few areas. This may help narrow it down, but..." She frowns. "I can't fully place it."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Kirito gets a heavy sigh from the Lord of Shadow, which prompts a quick fit of coughing. "Sorry, I need..." Cough cough cough! The Lord of Shadow clears their throat. She takes off her helmet, letting her long blonde hair go loose and displaying her proper princessy face, and now speaking in your everyday feminine voice. "Sorry, it's just... The lava fumes, you know? Mmmmh. Anyway," The Lord of Shadow continues, putting her massive, spikey helmet under one arm.

    "The Lord of Light is said to have summoned a great army by opening a gate, or a portal, or setting up some kind of summoning circle. It's all very... Unclear, nobody's cleared up anything specifically. But that's where the 'Players' come from." She shakes her head solemnly, seriously. "Everything's gotten so mixed up since this war started. I wish we could have found a better way of solving this." She kneels down, examining the thaumaturgical gear while the others look at various things.

    "The Kingdom of Light isn't made of 'Players', no, it's... Well, you know, there's people like us there too. But they've been sort of hijacked by their champions and heroes. They don't really have a lot of power compared to their soldiers." Then Frika gives her query and the Lord of Shadow looks a little forlorn. "He's my uncle, brother of the old Lord of Shadow. Or, at least, I guess he was. I don't really know what he is, anymore."

Staren has posed:
    Staren listens to the Lord of Shadow's words. He seems unsurprised at what's under the helmet -- he's seen it before, after all. "Is it possible that the Lord of Light used the same or a similar ritual to what you used to summon /us/?" Staren asks, only briefly glancing up from the flat white objects.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe says "So they are basically using the people of light as pawns to butcher you and your people."

she muses they have to do something for them they have to figure out how to take out the Prue and put a stop to the madness she thinks this world should if they succeed be put on an isolated server maintane and allowed to live in peace.

"I see hummmm that's a possiblity Staren. If we could get the kingdom of light to ... no longer support the players..."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Koishin lights up, giving a soft glow to the environment, and illuminating Kimiko's way. Which is good, because otherwise she's about to step right into a tripwire trap, which threatens to jam several large bolts square into her head. Good paranoia.

    Frederica's 'scouting sense' by which I probably mean experimental enthusiasm, will be what lets her figure out the way to open the faux paneling from this side of things, letting her get through without setting off the explosive trap setinto it. Beyond is the storage closet of what looks like a mansion, judging by the sheer quantity of cleaning supplies therein. The loud clomping of boots outside the door beyond suggests the presence of ARMORED GUARDS, who have not yet detected the group! They could be in and out like ghosts, if they can manage not to set off any alert from them or otherwise leave traces of passage... But this place, wherever it is, is guarded, and presumably the possible traitor lies beyond.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko's quite thankful for that light. Triggering a trap would likely have been noisy, one way or another. Noisy and painful. More so for the explosive at the top of the stairs.

    She listens, speaks silently into party-chat, and takes a post by the door up. "You can help investigate back down there, if you want." she says to Frika. "I'll keep an ear out here." Kimiko doesn't imagine she'll be too much good with the strange devices down there, anyway.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Theo and Aetherwright are the first ones to get here, to the strange flat white constructs. "This is simple to manipulate." The little crest Abstractum says. "It is the same sort of magical construct. Watch." The flat white things have incomprehensible text on them, but Aetherwright is... Moving around a menu! When it selects things, or does some arbitrary 'back' signal, the white constructs scoot around, lighting up.

    "Obviously it's a control interface. I think it's an attempt to emulate a player's menu. He is constructing by hand the interface used by yourselves."

    "I am more troubled by the fact that the menus have to be created in the first place. This seems like something that ought to be called directly from the game. Something is nonsensical here." Eureka's speaking up, as Staren gets here to see what all this nonsense is.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Kirito's examination of the wireframe is done with skilled player's eye, someone who has played games like this for ages and ages.

    That is why he can notice that these wireframes are just off proportion. The hitboxes are incorrect. It's not summoning parts of a player, it's definitely crafting them by hand, somehow.

Kirito has posed:
    "The Lord of Light... SUMMONED the players? ... so that's about when this became a 'game...' ... what does the Hollow Avatar have to do with that? There's got to be a connection. ... I knew there was something fishy about him being a 'GM.'" He does, however, gawk a bit at the sudden revealing. He's seen her with the helmet off before, but it doesn't change the fact that she is very pretty. Enough so that even he finds it hard to not stare just a little.

    Thankfully, however, he is not Klein, who would be trying to date her several times now.

    "Why you cover your face with that ferocious helmet is a mystery." He lightly remarks. It's kind of a compliment!

    "Yui, wake up!" he prods at a pocket and... despite usin his SAO avatar, Yui apparently IS around for this debacle. She manifests with a blip of light, wearing a tiny dress made of flower petals, and flits around on wings of light. "Good evening, papa! Miss Lord of Shadow! Everyone!"

    "Good evening, Yui! We're kind of in a rush. Can you have a look at some of these things? It's supposedly some kind of FullDive knockoff..."

    Yui makes a troubled face, but does glide down to take a closer look. Is she picking up anything?

    Though when he returns to examining the parts in the cases... "... This is weird. It's like he's trying to hand-craft stuff the system would normally handle...?"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Noble Six looks through paper instead of at all those fancy artifacts, which is probably pretty prudent. There's a great deal of RESEARCH here, incomprehensible to a soldier. But there's enough basic understanding to figure out some relevant things. Apparently this is all reverse-engineered based on a single artifact stolen from the Lord of Light. By this very traitor too, apparently!

Staren has posed:
    Staren gasps. "Oh my gosh they're /fake menus/. This is... well, I'm not sure /what/ it means. Maybe since they don't have access to the game's code, they're trying to imitate player 'tech' in other ways? A moment." Staren steps away to the center of the room, holds out his hand, and intones a series of vaguely nordic-sounding words, as circles of runes appear around him, then selected words flash and the rest disappear. Finally, he finishes casting a sound-muffling spell on the room. Stealth spells like this are something his ALO avatar is built for!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The Lord of Shadow shakes her head at Staren. "No, we only intercepted part of his ritual, we didn't summon you entirely. You would have come into our realm over in the Kingdom of Light's forward capital in our territories, and... Well. There was a 'welcome wagon', as the Players say." She frowns a bit at that.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The Lord of Shadow then nods to Tomoe. "The Lord of Light isn't stopping them. I honestly hold no grudge against the people in the Kingdom of Light. I'm guessing they're just as scared and weak against the 'Players' as we are." She makes a soft, uneasy noise about that.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frika, hearing turned up, shrugs. "There's lots of people searching the room." she says. "Here, I might hear or see something important." she adds to Kimiko. "I don't expect to be much good at stopping anyone from coming up here or anything. If it happens, that'll be your job. I'm just here to scout." she says, her voice somewhat calmer and more rational than her earlier remarks. Frederica's intellect winning over Frika's enthusiasm, perhaps.

    She does hear Staren's gasp however, and it rings a bell. "That physical menu I found embedded in a wall!" she exclaims. So this is related to that. And it's about ... about what? About characters trying to mimic player character interfaces? Is it some weird cargo cult thing, or is it something a lot more significant?

Theo Morrison has posed:
"A-ha! That's what I thought!" Theo snaps his fingers. It doesn't /really/ work, because he's wearing gauntlets. "Alright, so --" He quiets down. Someone else around; riiiight. After Staren casts and Frederica exclaims, he speaks again. "Yeah, exactly. It sounds a little like they're trying to put together a player to counter the ones terrorizing people. Maybe whoever did this thinks that it's the system elements that give us the ability to do what we do, so they're trying to make all of 'em and slap it together like an item set."

Theo picks up one of the menus, addressing Aetherwright again. "Can you translate it to English? I'd like to know if it's a carbon copy or if they took their own liberties with it." He tries to scroll the fake menu while he's at it, and holds up one of the panes. Can he affix it to the spot one of his windows would appear at and manipulate it that way?

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "So... aside from the different location, how is the partial summoning different? Is our physical nature any different from that of the other players?" he asks the Lord of Shadow.

    "Exactly what I'm thinking, like... like a sort of cargo cult thing. Except way more advanced and might actually work." Staren comments, to Theo.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "The Hollow Avatar is the head of the 'Player' presence. Ever since he appeared, the Lord of Light's been less and less involved in his politics. I doubt the Lord of Light could stop him if he wanted, now. It's one of his generals, but always wearing some kind of cloak. We can't tell who it is. It looks hollow, and thus the name." The Lord of Shadow says. "I don't know if it was... The cloak, summoned with the Players, or the cloak was developed alongside, or..." She sighs and makes a helpless sort of gesture. "I'm sorry."

    She smiles a little, sentimentally. "The helmet, the whole set of armor actually, it belonged to my dad, before... Well, you know." She makes a quick, simple little throat-crossing gesture. "Yeah."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Yui examines the Player bits. These are legitimate. Each of them has a completely unique player ID, and all of them are at full HP, but it's... Only a partial player FILE, so to speak, it's just a gib-part and nothing else. No full player save file. Even worse, somehow, than the "empty" player they found earlier.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    "You wear it well," Ainsley remarks over in the Lord of Shadow's direction, as she's frowning at the headgear and all the implications she has overheard so far. She shakes her head slowly.

    "If this is what he's researching... is he researching an /army/ of these?" A look of horror develops on her face. "Can these even be banned like the Players can be...?" She puts a hand up to her face.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko nods to Frika. That division of responsibility works well enough for her. She spends the remaining time checking over her equipment and trying again to familiarize with the menu system here. She doesn't have the experience of SAO, nor ALO, for this effort.

    Kimiko frowns, briefly, at Kirito. Helmets are for protecting the head, you silly girl-crazy person.

Iria (215) has posed:
    "So we definitely know that there's something going on here, and it's not within the rules of the game," Iria comments after a moment. "I've narrowed the location down to a few locations, as to where the wood came from, but that still means we have a few areas to check." She frowns at the comment made by Ainsley, then her eye twitches a little. "I knew something wasn't right!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe Says "You have a good point they are likely as scared as your people are My lord."

She keeos looking about at this point wondeirn how best o be of use and shifts slightly more to be ready for guards that are clearly about.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Kimiko and Frederica stay up here to listen. They get two different sorts of information pieces. Kimiko's more defense-minded ear gets a listen of the PATROL ROUTES, allowing her to get insight into the routes the guards outside take during their patrols, and when. When the group DOES eventually decide to head out, this data will make it assured that they'll have accurate data on where people are going to be. Advantage of listening to people in heavy armor, you know.

    Frederica, on the other hand, can get an earful more of the social end of things; she gets to hear about the guards discussing the current status of a "guest" who arrived a while ago, and their infrequent discussions occasionally contain snippets of the guest's HABITS in terms of where they tend to be located in the mansion itself on a day-to-day basis. Useful!

Noble Six (38) has posed:
Noble Six is doing her best to not move too much. All she needs to do is screw up and bring the guards down on them, and then they'll be in huge trouble. As she sorts through the papers, she hrms a little bit to herself. Normally in an instance like this they would just bag and tag everything and take it back to base to let the intel guys sort it out. She decides to do just that, carefully folding the papers up and putting them into storage so she can hand them off to someone who can decipher them better than her.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Staren manages to mask this area; the magical residue ought to wear off before the inhabitant around here actually gets back, of course, and in the meantime, it makes sure that the group doesn't have to worry about anything that isn't "shattering a bunch of glass" or anything like that doesn't suddenly draw guard attention.

Kimiko Shinobu (570) has posed:
    Kimiko can't actually tell just what the floor layout is out there, but she's getting an idea for it by follow the footsteps, and a bit of guesswork. Mentally, she adds a few points where there are possibilities of off-shoots from main hallways, based on anything like a pair of feet pausing, as if to look down a path without feeling an obligation to walk down it. All of this will be committed to memory and likely written down, later, since her memory is only at the usual human-level.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    "Hmmm..." Frika muses, power running through her mind. Sharpened hearing isn't exactly a strong psychic talent. Not nearly so useful as other more physical Rise talents, no. Still, it's got its uses. Even as the strain of elevating her senses begins to settle around her, she works on focussing it harder and sharper. A headache is a small price to pay to learn somethign useful.

    "There's a guest staying at this mansion." she states, directing the words back to the room of investigators. "Might be nothing important. But then it might be this assistant mage, right? Or one of the Pure Users? I wonder, once we've looked around as much as we can up here, if we should go hunting?" she says, grinning.

Kirito has posed:
    "Mass production... maybe this is some way to fight back?" Kirito thinks out loud.

    Yui announces, meanwhile, "Each of the parts has its own Player ID! It's only a stub, but this is valid player data! ... I don't know what the mage was doing or how, but it's like they're trying to..."

    "...mass-produce players, huh?" Kirito rubs his chin. "..If it was just one or two, it might be for spying, but this many... I wonder if he thought about turning the situation around!"

    He ends up nodding nevertheless at the 'Princess.' "Ah...right. Well, it's not my business... I think this place might've been a retreat for Plan B. Also, would an assistant be able to do all of this? Was the Archmage doing all of this research or the whole group...?"

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "The problem here, Theo," Aether wright says, its eye taking on a concentrating, frustrated look. "Is that this seems to work. It's not a 'cargo cult', as the psychic upstairs says. This is entirely functional. It seems to be an internally-constructed equivalent. There's an inventory system in this. Incredibly clumsy though. I can't translate it because it's garbage. Junk letters. The man who made this is an amateur. Give his research to the Lord of Shadow and she'll have this perfected easily."

    Eureka makes a few soft, troubled noises, but doesn't seem to be commenting much.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I didn't bring you into this world. I just changed where you'd show up to start with." The Lord of Shadow says, plaintively. "And only just barely, if what my mages said was right."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "If he wanted to raise an army, he could do better than betraying both of this world's factions. I expect his intent was more greedy." Nom de Plume speaks up, simply, in response to Ainsley.

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles at Aetherwright and Theo. "Great! Once the Lord of Shadow mass-produces players, we can arm them with your armory, and no more NPCs will have to die fighting!"

    Staren blinks at the Lord of Shadow. "Wait, so... you... Okay, so basically, the Lord of Light's ritual summoned /us/ too, you just... diverted where some of us showed up with your own ritual? Wait, no, that doesn't fit, the players have already been here for awhile..."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    Noble Six takes the papers! We'll get those deciphered later. The guy who did all this doesn't seem organized enough to really miss it, so it shouldn't be a big deal, really, so easy to grab one or two things, as long as you don't loot the whole place.

Theo Morrison has posed:
"She will, huh," Theo remarks, quietly. He looks down at Aetherwright, and then looks to Staren. He nods at him, but looks distracted. Theo starts to put the pane down, looking around again, but thinks better of it. "Good to know..." There's a slight bit of hesitance, maybe suspicion, in his tone. It's difficult to detect if you don't really know him.

He steps up next to Staren, keeping his voice down, offering him one of the panes as if he'd found something. He pings him with a private message when he does: 'feels too convenient; keep an eye open before we give her anything.'

Maybe he's just being paranoid because of a title like 'Lord of Shadow.' Maybe.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The length of time available to Kimiko means she can easily trace the routes and with enough consistent listening, she'll be able to mark out even a bit of the halllways too! This is gonna make stealthing through this a LOT easier when they go through this.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "We should come back with the proper equipment, the proper group, and the proper timing." Shinrin admonishes, to Frederica. "But you are right. A hunt. For the guest, and for anything else that could solve the mysteries here. But a careful one. If we spook the people here too early, we may lose the chance to learn something valuable."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe thinks for a moment

"Mass produce them? Humm I'm not sure I like where that is going. Humm I wonder it's hard to tell to be honest? My Lord?"

She looks to the Lord of Shadow Wondering what he might hae to add.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "It's a gate, or a summoning circle, or... Listen, I don't know, the Mages just intercepted your avatars as best they could. It worked, is all that matters. Mass producing players for us, though..." She frowns, putting up one cruel gauntlet to her chin. "It didn't work out well for the Kingdom of Light. I'd need to do it carefully. Cautiously. Consider all the options, make sure there's enough failsafes. But you, you're my best hope right now, not some... Impersonal army. It's not something I need to think about while this solution isn't even clearly working, and while you all are willing to help, anyway."

    She seems uneasy about going down this path. Worried, presumably, about compounding the issue. "As for the Archmage, I don't know what was going on over there. It's not very clear right now. I'm starting to think we weren't hearing about this because of whoever /this/ person is..." She seems a little frustrated about that.

Staren has posed:
    Staren gives Theo a thoughtful look. After a moment, he PMs back: 'I suppose it's up to Kirito.'

    ...'Or, the Lord of Shadow could overhear anyway.' He shrugs to Theo and turns back around. "Not impersonal. Remote-controlled by your own soldiers." Staren rubs the back of his neck. "Although this is enlightening... this isn't what I was hoping for." He turns back to look at the glass cases. "I wasn't looking for a fake player. I was looking for a /fake GM/."

    "...Or a way to access administrative tools, anyway."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "The cloak." Eureka says, simply. "That seems like the more relevant matter. Which explains why the players scavenged all of it immediately. The Hollow Avatar likely wanted it recovered immediately."

Staren has posed:
    "Yes." Staren nods slightly. "If we could make another cloak... or find /that/ research..."

Iria (215) has posed:
    "Is it possible to make a cloak without the original research?" Iria asks, not being fully keen on these things and the technology behind them.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "I'd guess someone made the first one. But... Well, that's deep in Light territory, and probably shrouded in secrecy to begin with." The Lord of Shadows says, with a heavy sort of sigh. "I don't know if I want to in the first place, if we can win this without resorting to the Kingdom of Light's weapons... I know it's probably a little irrational, but I feel uncomfortable taking the routes they do, if you're all able to find a better way. Father was more that kind. Steel in his gut, that sort of man. Not me, honestly."

Kirito has posed:
    "... now that you say that, I like this even less." Kirito's face has gone pale. Yui frowns upon spotting this, but he doesn't seem to be willing to speak on the matter quite yet. His expression's still rather ponderous...

    He wanders around, looking at more of the stuff... "Here's a theory. The players didn't exist until recently, right? ...And until the Kingdom of Light's ritual, this world wasn't part of any 'game.' If this isn't a virtual world running in a server... then you can't just generate an avatar from nothing, right? We might not be looking at attempts to IMITATE players here."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "That makes sense, but then, like... They respawn, is the thing. And I'm pretty sure we respawn too. Something more is up here, I think." Double Fault says, its eye "frowning". "Man, this makes my rhetorical head that doesn't exist hurt. Might be, though. This sure as hell doesn't act like a normal Seed world, that's for sure. Let's keep looking into this, see if we can find more places to check out."