| The others have already told their story. Now it's time for the new
folk to do the same.
"Ladies and gentlemen," 179 says in a cheery voice. "Boys and
girls of all ages, come and hear a sad little tale. A tale of the Oathbreaker.
Then we'll go around the room and introduce our newest guests and all that."
Again, the sudden burst of information....beginning with Fred the Oathbreaker.
179 is speaking.....to their minds.
This Fred was a knight of the Great Kingdom who'd been tasked by his
king to slay a terrible dragon....
What I call the Thaobath Universe.....
Fred D'Honaire
Lord Fred was sent by his king to slay the Dragon of the Southern
Caves. Once there, he met Astra and slew Velus. Now Velus was either a
Hell Hound or a dragon in the form of a Hell Hound. It's not exactly clear.
Anyway, the dragon Minestus then translocated both Fred and Astra to the
Calamari desert to die. He was quite angry that they had killed Velus,
you see. Luckily the pair was rescued by Dr.Vincent Priceless, but then
Fred was accidentally dismembered. Dr.Vincent attempted to magically restore
him, but during the procedure Astra unintentionally broke his concentration.
Fred died and was sent to Hell. Why Hell? Maybe it was the Hell Hound's
revenge (actually....this Fred led a rather....bad life.....appearance
to the contrary....alas). To make a long story short, Fred didn't like
Hell very much and when a demoness offered him a chance to get out he took
it. His mission was to betray any and all who would have aided him in his
original quest to slay the dragon. The first two people on the list...Astra
and Andrea. Fred was then sent back to the mortal sphere as a Thoabath,
or Oathbreaker. He soon came upon Andrea and found his way back to Astra.
The threesome then journeyed to the home of Belboz the Fell.
Princess Astra of Aquilaria
On a quest of her own, Astra went to the Southern Caves and was captured
by the evil Velus. But she was rescued by Fred and Velus was killed. The
dragon Minestus then translocated them to the Calamari desert where Dr.Priceless
saved their lives. Fred was accidentally dismembered and during the magical
operation to restore him, Astra unintentionally distracted Priceless and
found herself teleported back to Minestus' lair. She passed through a magical
archway and was then trapped in a room and turned into a werewolf. Minestus
returned her to her human form, but then assured her that his revenge was
now complete. She then found herself outside of the Croix Keep, magically
teleported there by the Dragon. She then met Andrea. Together they discovered
that the Keep had been betrayed by Lucien, Lord Croix's advisor, and that
it was now in the hands of the Dragon's forces. Lucien taunted Astra, for
he knew that Astra was still cursed. Astra killed Lucien and then she and
Andrea escaped to the nearby forest where Astra was reunited with Fred.
They then journeyed to the home of Belboz the Fell. Astra didn't know what
Minestus' curse was, but she wanted to be free of it and Belboz was a magician
of great renown.
Lady Andrea of Croix
Andrea is a young, overly-protected and very bored noblewoman. Her
father is the Lord of Croix Keep, located in the Lordship of North Umbria
somewhere in the Kingdom. One day she decided that enough was enough and
she left the Keep in search of excitement, a few thrills and maybe a little
romance. She left in the middle of the night and the first person she met
was Astra. Astra ordered her to return home and so the two went back to
the Keep. But they discovered that the Keep had been betrayed and was now
in the hands of the Dragon's forces. They escaped to the nearby forest
where Astra decided that she would seek out Belboz the Necromancer. Andrea
refused to go with her because Belboz was a black magician and too dangerous.
She left Astra but soon became lost in the forest until Fred appeared and
took her with him as he hunted down Astra. When the three were reunited,
they all headed off to the home of Belboz. Belboz the Fell Belboz is a
necromancer. He delves into the darkest secrets of the dead. He can bend
the forces of nature to his will. He communes with the spirits of the Outer
Planes. He's the kind of guy you don't mess around with. But when Lord
Fred suddenly appeared in his doorway, Belboz got scared. Fred showed him
the terrible symbol carved into the flesh of his palm. Belboz recognized
it. He knew what Fred had become and all Belboz wanted was for Fred to
go as far away as possible. But Fred was there for a reason and so Belboz
reluctantly let him and his companions, Astra and Andrea, into his home.
Astra then told him that she had been cursed and wanted it lifted. Although
she did not know what the curse was, she did tell him what little had been
told her by Minestus and Lucien. Andrea related the tale of the Ergot Mushroom
which changed people into beasts under the light of the full moon. Since
all the pieces seemed to fit, it meant that Astra would soon turn into
a blood thirsty beast. Belboz agreed to cure her but he needed time; unfortunately
the moon would be full the very next night. Which brings us back to where
we started. Astra has run off, afraid of the monster she will become, unwilling
to endanger her friends. And Andrea is now alone in a house with a black
sorcerer and a demonic knight.
Whatever will happen next?
Jellico looks like he's just swallowed a pinapple....whole. He has to
accept it.....for what he's seen and experience leaves no room for doubt....but
the Admiral's sense of the ordinary has been taking a beating here.
Jellico places all that has happened in the same category as what he's
heard about the Q....and nods grimly to himself. Perhaps what he'd read
of Kirk's wilder exploits were actually true? Things like space going space
amoebas that eat solar systems and other things did happen.
God knows he himself was in a waking nightmare right now, running around
with knights and dragons....and magic!
Meanwhile, a general session of questions has broken out from several
of the mages present, who tell of Terra Prime's version of lycanthropy....which
has nothing to do with funky mushrooms.
"There are other kinds?" the accursed Astra asks, still punchy at all
has happened. Quick information about Atlantis creating a version of a
curse that warped the Matrix, a basic magical building block/soul interface
with the physical world (several Star Fleeters' eyebrows shoot upward at
that one), into the lycanthropes now known throughout Terra. Lycanthrope
shards altered the person's Matrix, and was passable to others through
bites and.....other exchanges of the bodies fluids.
Several Astras and Freds chuckle at what that translated into.....
Jellico didn't want to ask....fearing he'd not like the answer.
The accursed Astra looks enlightened, and then dizzy as 179 glances
at her and removes the contagion within her body....and erased the physical
and mental addiction that the changes had been inducing in this Astra.
What happens next is that after Fred and Andrea track Astra down,
she's in the throws of the beast, and Andrea is almost wolf chow when you
guys got teleported here! As for Belboz the Fell, he met Belboz the Necromancer
and Ghost, who'd been on a mission to free all others killed by the Phage
(a plague unleashed by a reptilian race the Military calls the Enemy) and
let them get on with their Afterlife up Above....or Down Below. Well, the
Ghost won. Good and just, since THIS Belboz was a pretty good fellow (that
causes a few eyebrows to rise again....but nothing more).
The idea of good necromancers is strange....but then again so
is so much that's happened today....
The two woman sadly shake their heads, looking at the glaring
Fred...who's flanked by a good half dozen reaction troops wearing power
armor and heavy weaponry. If this Fred so much as twitched....he'd find
himself dead and back in Hell!
Which is exactly where he's going. Fred disappears with
a shout of soul wrenching dismay and disbelief.
Those who go to Blazes are meant to STAY there. Orders from on High.....from
the Higher Ups.
The last is delivered the audience with a grim chuckle...devoid of humor.
And I can no more defy the strictures on myself than you humans can
breath without air, 179 concludes. So, I have to send that toxic
waste back to the Pit where it belongs....period.
As for the others.....
Alternate Walants Universe 6 Fred goes to the Southern Caves to slay
a dragon. He kills Velus. He & Astra are sent to the Calamari Desert
to die. Dr.Vincent saves them. Minestus kidnaps Astra and turns her into
a demifox. Fred goes after her but becomes a demifox too. Malachi and Minestus
kill each other. Fred & Astra go to Walants to give Synizn the Crystallic
so he can cure them. WereBear Synizn cures them and sends them to Aqualaria
where they get married and have 7 babies. Later, Synizn (now a demifox)
visits them and asks for their help to destroy the Crystallic. They go
to Normady and meet up with the dragon Sigin. Dragoness Moreau somehow
manages to drag Fred and Synizn (now a demifox) to the lost city of Atlantis,
defeat them in battle, and leave them for bait for when Astra, Sigin, and
the 7 infants come along finally. The other adventurers do come along,
and find the unconscious Fred and Synizn sprawled next to the burned out
corpse of Dragoness Moreau. The corpse is still smoking after all this
time since time.....flows at odd speeds at this fell city. The adventures
are reunited, but must flee Atlantis because the magical battle that had
knocked out Fred and Sigin (and killed Moreau) had weakened the city's
magical shields. The adventureres get away and witness the tons of water
crush the fell city.....ruinining it and any chance they had at fulfilling
their mission to destroy the Crystallic through means found in Atlantis!
But this destruction caused some bad feedback in the slipgate system, so
while the entity that was in control of the slipgates was assessing damage
to itself....Terra Prime's slipgate was reaching out and grabbing land
and people like mad....... And this is what happened when it reached out
to take these adventurers through THEIR Crystallic!
The others look at Fred 6's group in consternation at what 179
says next....while laughing at the whole business....for it had made the
Rule laugh at the strangeness of it all!
Now, it can be said that the multi-verse is a weird place,
where almost anything is possible AND probable....if you look hard enough.
Sometimes, however, even some events just come out of left field, take
a right at the stoplight.....and head into the zone of just plane NUTS!
Now, some argue that there is a higher order.....that Someone
or Something is in charge. Anyone witnessing the next event from a position
ABOVE the multi-verse, in a set of universes of "low probability"......that
person would have to wonder about that!
A Crystallic, giving off the proscribed warning signal to it's
owner, to prepare him for an unexpected call from a malfunctioning Otherworld
Slipgate system, is instead thrown through the very viewing screen/warning
sign it had used to warn it's owner. The much suffered artifact shrugs
mental shoulders, and finds itself at the feet of a humanoid, grizzled,
grey furred wolf....and a bunch of demi-foxes! The safety feature of the
slipgate system that SHOULD prevent two such powerful Atlantian artifacts
to exist on the same plane of existence, backfires and sends yet another
Crystallic that was floating in the molten remains of what used to be it's
owners lair (re:1270) zipping back to a stunned demi-fox and his shipmates
(re:2523). Then, the entire Island of Dragon Moreau suddenly flashes yet
AGAIN, finally causing the imprisoning shields meant to keep the Pack in
(and incidentally keeping a deadly Phage out) back to where it's home universe.
-
 Then.......we
get a view of what Synizn does next.....
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