Story time.

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 7604

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 here 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 questins 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.

  1. Then.......we get a view of what Synizn does next.....

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2/20/2000 1:31:46 PM

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