:: Escaping Reality ::
the Fellowship of the Lag
a story by Bastian “CamelMan” TheGreijze
published by GroeneDraeck – GreenDragon Society
© 2004
:: Chapter 1 :: The Lagstorm ::
The mob wasn’t aware of Rip’s presence while he closed in on it. Staring through the scope Rip made
the descision to use his biggest amplifier on this one. Would it not be the extra damage it made, it
would surely give him the extra 30% skillgain. Skills he needed to reach his 1000th marksmanship
skill. Last night, with his hunting friends, Rip proclaimed he would be the first of them to reach that
level. Coming home without that uberlevel would not be good for his image. They would laugh and
snicker at him, and he was surely not going to let that happen. The mob turned and walked towards him
now, entering a distance of 135 from Rip. He made a quick weapon switch to his Improved Fire Forge
8M rifle. As soon as the mob got to a distance of 125 he would be able to start shooting at it. Quickly
he checked his ammunition count. He grinned, the amount of 10.345 medium weapon cells should well
be enough. Trying to get inline with the mob, Rip stepped aside a bit, to get the trees out of the way.
“Just a few yards more..”, he thought to himself and waited for the mob to enter his ‘circle of death’.
That was the name he liked to give to his surrounding area, in which the range of his weapon could
make a deadly spread of laserbeams. Rip waited with his finger on the trigger, as the mob slowly
walked towards him. Just a few more yards and he’d be able to loot that ugly beast in no time.
“Now!”, he thought and squeezed the trigger. Bwiew! The gun unleashed a deadly beam of lasers
towards the spot where the animal stood. But it was not there at all.
“Wtf?”, Rip screamed. The mob had been set back to the exact spot where it was a minute ago, well out
of range of his FF8M. It was still walking towards him, so he just decided to wait for it. And just as it
was to enter his circle of death again, hop, it was set back to its original position again.
“OMG, a lagstorm!” Rip cried. “That will only cost me ammo, godammit”.
As it would surely not give him any skill to miss a lagged mob Rip turned around, and started to head
back for the city of Troy. While the mob behind him went back and forth, as a beachball in the
lagstorm, he would be better off trying his luck in another hunting area. Calypso had always been good
to Rip, giving him several HoFs since he landed at the port of Atlantis on the spaceship from Earth, so
he wouldn’t complain much. He was just getting tired of moving into the wild and having to face
unnatural movements of the mobs he tried to ice. Rip needed a drink.
The Trojan's Bar was
quite empty and the
music in the jukebox
started to repeat itself,
when Rip said: ”Well
Bartender, it’s just
you and me here. Tell me why you don’t pour me any drinks, mate.”
“It’s not personal, sir, it’s just that I don’t have any means of checking your age. The owner of this
joint is just scared he will be sued by some parental institute for giving an alcholic beverage to
underaged people. They took my permit.”
“Geez, is that true?” said Rip “Isn’t there any way of checking age, at all? I mean you could still pour
cola, couldn’t you? I’m thirsty. And I just want to hang over a glass of liquid to mourn over the
ammoloss in the lagstorm I just came out of.”
“I understand well, sir, but it’s not my choice you know. If it was I would for example had put a lot
more and modern music in that Jukebox too, wouldn’t you think?”
“Heu?” Rip frowned. “But the music here is not an age or permit problem is it?”
“True”, said the bartender. “It’s more of a problem that I am not able to get out behind this counter.”
Rip laughed out loud. “I see”, he said. “Well I think it’s a bigger penalty for you to be stuck here, then
it is for me that I have lost 21 ammo in a shot-in-the-air during my last hunt outthere in the lagstorm”
“Thank you, sir, I appreciate your compassion. I will keep trying to get meself a bar with decent drinks
for you hunters.”
“You do that, mate” Rip replied, “I’m sure the Calypsonians will visit this bar a lot more as soon as
you do manage to pour some drinks here. BTW, I love what you did to the interior.”
“Thanks.”
“I gotta go now, cya.”
“No more for you my friend.”, said the bartender while he turned his back to Rip.
As he walked out and scanned the people surrounding the teleport Rip noticed a fine young blonde lady
in a beautiful black skirt. While checking her other clothings and statistics, he noticed she was crying.
He actually heard it too, although there were at least 20 people selling and buying – thus speaking – at
the same time. Rip walked towards her. “Hi” he smiled to her. “I am Rip” he said, although he was sure
she was able to see that herself too. Just like he saw she was named Dayna and a skilled mindforceress.
“Why are you crying, Dayna?”
“O, hi Rip” she smiled back, apparently impressed by his full Shadow armor with Angel helmet. “I
have a huge problem”, she said.
“And what is that?” he asked, already in a private chat window. He liked the idea of private chatting
with nice looking girls like this one, since he wasn’t planning on making her compliments in front of
all the unknown people walking around in Troy,
“Can I help you?”
“Nobody can help me now, Rip..” Dayna said “..I have to get at Singulars 3rd Miss Calypso contest
within the next hour, but the teleports don’t work. I’m sure I can win it, I even bought a full Dark
Devinity set of clothes for it, but I am not going to walk the whole freaking distance to Nymphtown
from here myself, you know.” She smiled at him again.
He loved this part of the game, so he went on: ”Well I know someone who can help you and fix the
teleportingsystem at a snap of his fingers.”
Dayna cheered, as she said “Really? That would be great, can I follow you to that person? Will you
bring me to him? Who is it? Shall we team?”
“Sure girl, no problem. You ask a lot. But first let’s team and I’ll have you in Nymphtown within that
hour time. I assure you you will be at the contest at the proper time. You’ll even have a chance to
change clothes when we get there.” Rip smiled and invited her in his team.
“Where do we go?” she asked.
“NorthWest.” Rip said as he turned towards Atlantis and started running.
“Okidoki.” Dayna followed him at close range.
Together they ran out of Troy, leaving the busy city with the lagged teleport behind them in the east.
They couldn’t notice the single green dot, which left the city just after they did. It went in exactly the
same direction as they did, trying to keep the distance big enough to not being noticed by the
hunterseye of Rip.
:: Chapter 2 :: Atroxities and Robots ::
It was a beautiful day on Calypso. The sun was shining. The not so many clouds passed the skies in an
easy manner. Giant tulips waved in the slight breeze coming from the north. The flowers stood next to
one of the biggest rivers of this island. These rivers hold water that is so clear and nutricious, that much
of the flora on this island had gotten size and strength never seen before on the planet Earth. As soon as
Rip and Dayna reached the riverside Rip stopped and turned around.
“Can you swim?”
“Offcourse darling, who can’t?”
Rip grinned and started to swim to the other side. Dayna
continued following him. They both didn’t make an effort
putting on their bathing suits. The sun over Calypso was
many times stronger then the one they knew from Earth. This
sun and the warmth it gives could get their clothes dry within
2 seconds after they left the water. It was a good thing that the
oxygen and water on this planet wouldn’t make Rip’s armor
rust at all. Nobody had ever found out the reason behind that,
but it sure came in handy when travelling this environment.
In fact it didn’t matter if one travelled with full clothing or
just in shorts, clothes were not at all used for keeping a body
warm or cool. They were just functional for keeping up
appearances. The couple reached the other side and continued
their travel towards Port Atlantis in already dry clothes.
Just as Rip was about to make a remark about the funny
yellow tulips, which made him remember the little country of
Holland on Earth, the ground under their feet started to shake
and tremble.
“R..Rip??” Dayna asked while they heard a blast, and felt the
ground shaking again “What is t..that?”
“Must be a miner,” Rip said and took out his pistol with attached scope. “Let’s see..”
The bomb hit a vast deposit of Iron. The signal of the bomb was send directly to the detectonator in the
hands of the miner giving him a direction and depth of the vaine of minerals. Slowly walking towards
the point where the distance was small enough to print a claim, the miner suddenly saw two green dots
approaching. “It’s my mine, mine!” he said while entering the area where he could print his claim.
“Sure,” said Rip noticing the claimrod which appeared near the mining man. “You have luck I see?”
“I always have luck, mate”
The miner switched to his excavator and started to empty his claim.
“I am Rip and she is Dayna. If you are so lucky, can you tell me if the Oracle Marco is in Atlantis?”
The miner took the Iron he gotten out of the mine and put it in his inventory. Turning towards his two
guests he looked upon the heavily armored macho and his well dressed partner, and smiled.
“My name is MOAB, nice to meet you.” He got a smile from Dayna but couldn’t notice any expression
from Rip behind his helmet. “I don’t think you will get a lot of info from Marco, despite the Oracle he
may be.”
“No?”
“Hmm. You know everything he says is either cryptical or ‘might be’. It’s pretty hard to find out what
is real and what is not. What do you need to know?”
“We seek a solution for teleportbugs during lagstorms. Someone told me Marco, or the Mind Ark, can
at any moment fix the teleports on Calypso. Dayna here is on her way to an event in Nymphtown. She
should get there within the next hour, and I am helping her to get there in time.”
“Aha, ‘M In Dark’. Well I can’t tell because as a miner I never use teleports myself. I always take the
walk so I can bomb all areas. But let me go along, I can help you on the information thing. I know an
Oracle which is much better then that Marco of yours. He will not be so cryptical, or should I say ‘it’?”
“It? Are you joking?” Rip frowned “Is this an animal you think will give us this information?”
“Yes. But not just an animal. It’s a Huge Hiryu’u, called the Green Dragon. I know where it lives. We
should go North to the Limnadian District.”
“That way we have to pass the land of Atrox’ and Araneatrox, my friend, with this lady here I..”
“I don’t think you will have problems with protecting us, do you Rip?” interrupted MOAB while
making a wink to Dayna.
“Err.. No. That’s true. I kill those animals in a blink of my eye. They can lick my butt, and it still won’t
hurt me, moewhahaha” Rip laughed as he stretched his muscles.
“Oh Rip, you’re my hero!” said Dayna, “Thanks for helping us out MOAB. Can you lead us the way
to the Green Dragon?”
“I will ma’m. Follow me.” MOAB smiled to Dayna, being just a little jealous of Rip’s big macho chest.
The Fellowship of the Lag continued their journey, now heading north. They would have to cross
mountains and rivers on the way to Limnadian. Under the current sunshine and nice temperatures it
would take them just under ten minutes to reach that district. Unless Rip would have to deal with
atroxities underway, that could cost them minutes more.
MOAB took a route on which they could easily be visited by Old and Alpha Atroxes. Just in case they
all had their ears wide open for the sound of the Atrox footsteps. A deep sound that is accompanying
the sudden approach of the heavy animal, and mostly a not less sudden death. But they didn’t hear
them coming and were probably lucky today, since the gigantic spiders or Araneatrox hadn’t appeared
as well. The first sounds that broke the silence was the sound of yet another river. Rip knew this
province by heart, so he concluded MOAB was taking the route over the West Scylla Mountains.
Going over these mountains would probably give them a chance to visit the remnants of the city of
Zychion. A city which was abandoned by the Calypsonian citizens long ago and hadn’t appeared on
any of the official maps of Calypso ever since. They crossed the river and the mountains, when MOAB
suddenly said:”Hey guys, would you mind making a stopover at Zychion?” Rip looked at Dayna, and
replied “No problem. Dayna? What’s your opinion?”
“I have no problem with that. I haven’t been there yet, is there a Teleport?”
“Yes, there is. Are actually, because there are two, but one doesn’t work at all.”
“Is that so? Well we might try that one that is working, to see if it doesn’t have any problems today?”
“Yes, that’s a good idea,” said Rip and he turned towards MOAB “Mo, why do you want to go there?
Isn’t it much more direct to follow these mountain side to Limnadian?”
“That’s true, but I didn’t say we had to go to Limnadian.”
“Explain that my friend.” Rip got a little agitated by this mans behaviour. He was sure this miner was
making a pass on his newly found female friend.
“The Green Dragon lives in a cave near the Limnadian District. There’s a friend of mine living near the
Zychion Citadel, who can give us the exact directions.”
“Ok, we go there. And we’ll check if the Teleports work right away. Sometimes that does happen. I
don’t have a good feeling about it, however.”
“Neither do I,” said Dayna as they jumped of the mountains and got onto lower grounds. “But you
never know.”
On top of the mountains behind them stood a figure in the shadow, following their movements and
talks with interest. “You don’t know, girl”, said the small female with short dark hair while she stepped
out of the shadow into the sun. She was wearing n00bclothing, being the standard orange jumper and
pants. “But if you do, I will too.” A long and nasty laugh echoed trough the mountainpass, as the
woman from Troy jumped of the cliffs. She continued to follow the group of three secretly. She wasn’t
noticed by them at all. At least it appeared that way.
“Stop!”, yelled Rip and got out his Anti Robot Rifle. He quickly aimed at a red dot at the horizon. The
Zychion Citadel could already be seen in the corner of his view, as he zoomed in with his precision
scope. “It’s a drone” he smiled, “I’ll have it down in no time.”
“No!” yelled MOAB. He stepped in the view of Rip.
“Omfg! Step out of my line of fire, Mo, this way I can’t hit it!”
“Hold fire! That is the friend I was talking about!” said MOAB
as he started to run towards the Drone Generation 01 in the
distance.
“What? Man, you are a strange fellow, making friends amongst
the animals and robots. How come the drone won’t shoot you
then? They are programmed to do that, if you didn’t know yet.”
“This one isn’t. Or it is, I don’t know, but it won’t shoot me.
Here we are, ask her yourself!” MOAB had indeed approached
the robot and was standing there next to it. Apparently they were
having a conversation. Rip nodded at Dayna and they walked
towards the two.
After they introduced themselves to the robot Rip popped the
question. “Why didn’t you shoot us? Aren’t you programmed to
do that? I mean..”
“I’m a pascifist. I had my brother – a Warrior Generation - demolish my right arm, so that I can’t shoot
anymore.” said the drone. Rip and Dayna thought for a moment that they could see a smile in the red
lights and steel which was supposed to form the head of the drone. “You don’t say…” said Rip, who
was becoming a bit puzzled by now. “Did this drone girl give you the coordinates of the Green
Dragons Lair, MOAB?” He wanted to get out of this weird situation as soon as possible.
“Yes it did. It also wants to stay alive for a bit longer, if you two don’t mind. It asked me if you, Rip,
could let her live. She’s impressed by you Improved AntiRobotRifle but does not want to dodge any of
your cells as soon as we leave.”
“No, Rip won’t kill you” said Dayna, while smiling at the drone. “I think it’s a kinda cute robot too.”
“Alright then, let’s go NorthEast from here”, said MOAB as he started to turn around.
“Wait!,” said Rip “we still have to check the teleport in Zychion! It may be functioning here.”
“That won’t be necessary. The drone just told me it doesn’t. The lagstorms must have put the whole
system on the entire Island down. We will have to continue our quest for a solution.”
“Hmm this sounds bad. But we have no choice I suppose. Lead the way Mo, we will follow you.”
“Bliep?” asked the drone.
“You’re safe for now, drone girl,” said Rip, as he turned to follow Dayna and MOAB who headed for
the Green Dragons Lair.
The drone watched the three humans travel past Zychion, and out of her radarsight. All the time she
had been talking with these nice people, she felt her programs wanting to shoot instinctively through
her right arm with build in lasergun. That hurted a bit, but for a pascifist like her it didn’t matter. She
was happy enough she outlived this situation. Again. She probably had made tons of friends here on
Calypso. All people who asked her first, before shooting. That way these people found out she wasn’t
an active shooter anymore, and really a nice person. A robot to be loved. Just as her programming
eased down and stopped loading her inactive right arm with weapon cells, she felt a hard sting in her
back.
“Bliep?” Someone had shot her from great distance, through her backpack, in the back.
The next blow came in her head. That hurted. At the moment a soft glow turned her vision red, and she
fell on her knees, she understood that not all humans ask before shooting. She was dieing, and the
orange clothed small woman who was stepping in front of her, trying to loot her of her valuables, was
not going to let her survive. The red light on the drone’s head started to faint and finally went out
forever.
:: Chapter 3 :: The Green Dragons Lair ::
A short time after they had passed Zychion the Fellowship reached the tops of the West Scylla
Mountains. The weather was still nice, pretty sunny to say the least, and clouds were slowly passing at
the horizon. MOAB pointed at the river and the point where it met the big Limnadian Lake. That was
the point where they would find the cave of the Green Dragon. Not many people had survived a visit of
this massive and ancient animal. It were the first GroeneDraeck Society members who had raised the
small Hiryu’u years ago. The food they gave him, n00bflesh mixed with orange juice, had given their
protecting dragon a more then avarage size. That surprized them too. They soon found out several
purposes for a good use of it. One of them was the fact they used their Green Dragon as a sparring
partner in their training camps for the boxing events. Every season the AboC, Associated Boxers of
Calypso, organized a boxing event in Argus. The powerfist hits of them on the dragon eventually made
it more skilled in dodging and evading as well. Soon after the GreenDragonSociety members found
that out, they also found out the skills of their dragon had turned
out to be enormously high. Society scientists were still examining
the reason behind this high rate of skill gain. In the near future they
could probably use this knowledge for themselves too, and give
the society hunters a medicin or drug to get them evenly high
skilled. In the mean time the greatest hunters of the society were
building up their skills in the normal way. They were doing a
succesfull job on that as well.
At the time MOAB, Dayna and Rip crossed the river and saw the
cave peeking out above the waterline there were no GroeneDraeck
Society members in or near the cave. They could not see any green
dots. The Green Dragon itself was not always visible as red dot on
the radar. That was a skill too, called ‘cloaking’, and the Green
Dragon had perfectioned it by himself. This made humans, either
n00bs or veterans, virtually no match for him. He could always
surprise anybody at any time. And he could fly up to great hights,
to attack from above. This all went through the heads of the Fellowship when they came to stand in
front of the entrance of the Lair. MOAB turned to his two travel mates.
“Don’t make any sudden moves, when you see the Green Dragon. It will answer your question, I hope
it’s at home, without killing us. As long as you don’t make any aggressive impression on him.”
Rip nodded as he put away his gun. “Ok, let’s go in then” he said and they started to walk down the
alley into the cave. The smell of orange juice, or all that was left of the n00bs who went in here with an
aggressive mood, was as thick as smoke. It hurted in the throat and almost made them stop breathing.
They continued their path into the cave untill they stood in front of a big internal orange lake. Behind
the lake they saw the GreenDragon lying in its nest. It was clear they were noticed by him, since the
big yellow and green eyes were staring at them as if they were all being measured to fit in his stomach.
“You come here to pop a question.” the Dragon suddenly said. The walls of the cave trembled at the
tone of his voice. “And the way to the answer is only known by l33t.”
“Who is l33t?”, said Rip, trying to not sound aggressive at all.
“L33t is dead.”
“But if he’s dead, how can we ask him the way, you Dragon?” said Rip a little cynical.
“Do you dare to question my answers?”, the Dragon said with a much louder voice. The cave seemed
to shake and some flames came out of the huge dragons nostrils.
“Oh shit.. No Sir..” Rip tried to save the situation, ”Where can we find this l33t? Please?”
“L33t is waiting for you at the nearby Umbranoid Village.”
The Green Dragon turned it’s body around and was apparently making up his nest for a new sleeping
period. A thing dragons did a lot too, sleeping. And they didn’t like to be disturbed while doing it.
MOAB whispered “I know where that village is, Rip. Let’s get the f*ck outahere. Now!”
The three stepped back quietly and walked towards the exit. They had survived a conversation with the
Green Dragon. That’s not something a lot of Calypsonians can tell their grandchildren stories about.
They just outlived a visit of the Green Dragons Lair with an animal thirty times as strong as a fierce
Atrox Old Alpha. That made you appreciate the smell of fresh air and the sun warmth in your face even
more. As soon as they reached the exit MOAB lead the team in the direction of the Limnadian District
teleport. They were going on some Umbranoid hunt if they wanted to find l33t. The Umbranoids were
also not known for their hospitality against visitors of their village. They all took out their weapons,
MOAB used his True Faith pistol and Rip equiped his improved MK2.
Rip looked at Dayna as they approached the village and asked : “Dayna, don’t you equip a weapon?”
“I did,” Dayna answered “I just selected my Heavy Nerve Blast Chip. I’m a mindforceress you know.”
“Ah yes, offcourse. You don’t need to use your Mind Essence for the Umbranoids, if you don’t want
to. I’m sure I can take them on my own too.”
“No problem, Rip. I want to gain some skills there too, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind, beauty. I will try to save you two some targets.”
It only took them three minutes to build a mass grave of Umbranoids in the village. The Umbranoids
started coming from all directions, but had no chance against the threesome. Dayna took out the ones
that stayed cirling around Rip and MOAB , while the two men shot every Umbranoid hiding in the
village lookout towers and homes. They were surrounded by black bodies, blue dots and their Enblades
and Knives when MOAB concluded every living soal had gone to meet it’s maker.
“I see a lot of dead Umbranoids, but I haven’t found l33t” said Rip while scanning the area.
“I found him”, said Dayna pointing at the village westwing, “He’s in the house on the left there.”
“But, I don’t see him?” replied MOAB walking to the house Dayna pointed at. “I only see a white dot,
which meens there’s a ghost over there.”
“True. But he is talking to me.” Dayna started to talk as if she was translating her conversation with
l33t to the two others. “He says I can talk with him because I have a mindforce chip in my head. He
says his name is l33t, and he’s been here
as a ghost since the Pre-Beta Era. In those
times they had different Revival
Terminals than the ones we use now.
Since the Gold Era he hasn’t been able to
revive and was doomed to stay a ghost
ever since.”
“Wow. That’s a bummer,” said MOAB “ask him if he knows a solution for our, or your, problem
Dayna.”
“He does,” she smiled to MOAB, “He says we can find the answer in the ancient Encycalypsopedia.
That’s a book which holds all knowledge of life and death on the planet Calypso. The people from
Earth had it with them when they came to Calypso ages ago. It should have all help files and other
information about the Project Entropia, which we never had since we stepped on this planet. It has been
lost during the Great Robot Wars, and was said to be taken by a Longu Dominant. The Longu took the
book and buried it under the Big Desert, because it holds a lot of information about loot drops and mob
locations as well. It has been there ever since, and nobody has found it yet. L33t knows the location,
but he wasn’t able to tell anybody untill VU5.4 came. He says I am the first who he thinks is worthy
enough to know, and has a build in mindforce chip. He will lead us to the location of the
Encycalypsopedia, since he thinks he can trust us not to use it in a wrong manner.”
Both MOAB and Rip were hanging on the lips of Dayna, listening to this awesome story of l33t. The
ghost was in the middle of their group, but the things he said were only noticed by MOAB and Rip as a
lot of ‘Booo,booo’ sounds. They were all too much preoccupied by the meaning of this rare ancient
Encycalypsopedia, that they didn’t notice the Umbranoid Male that respawned right behind Dayna’s
back. It suddenly started to stab Dayna in the back, quickly and deadly. Both Rip and MOAB were not
able to react fast enough, when they saw her life health diminish quickly. Because the attacker was
standing right behind her they would not be able to shoot at it and save her from dieing in front of
them. Rip tried to equip his modified fap to heal her from upfront, but he had forgotten to repair it in
time. The instrument couldn’t be used anymore. Still staring at Dayna loosing health at an abnormal
high rate, her two friends saw the Umbranoid fall on his knees and finally flat on the ground. It had
died. Still dazled by the whole experience of these few seconds, they saw a small girl with black hair
and orange noob clothing appear from behind Dayna.
“Hey,” she smiled, “I am Meg Legna.”
Rip frowned, noticing this sudden life saver was a member of the CloakedKiller Society, normally a
very deadly group of persons killing humans in the PvP area’s of the island.
“You didn’t mind me shooting that bloke, did you?” Meg asked friendly.
:: Chapter 4 :: The Encycalypsopedia ::
Soon after Dayna had healed herself with her Heal Chip Meg was added to the group of travellers.
Despite Rip’s feelings of the society miss Legna was apparently from, they had explained her the
reasons for this journey. They had also told her about the contains of the ancient Encycalypsopedia and
the location where they were supposed to find it. Meg had listened closely all the time. Rip thought she
was not as surprised as he was when Dayna told him about the book, which he thought was strange. He
suspected her of eavesdropping all that time, but he couldn’t proove any second agenda held by Meg.
Finally he dropped his ‘bad feelings’ about this girl. She had saved Dayna from the Umbranoid attack
and that had to say something. L33t continued his description of the place where they would find the
hidden book. If it was indeed taken by the Longu Dominant, there was a fair chance they would find it
in the Big Desert south of Pandora. That desert was exactly in between of their present location and the
city of Nymphtown, so they headed straight east. They would either be finding the book and solve the
problem of the lagstorms and the messed up teleports, and if not, they would surely be well on their
way to Nymphtown. With the current timeschedule they could probably make it in time for Dayna to
attend the Miss Calypso’s anyway. While they travelled east, passing the Battle Remains of the former
Robot Wars, Rip made a deal with himself. He would watch out for that Meg Legna, making sure she
would not steal the Encycalypsopedia and use it for the benefit of the CK society. If she was really
planning on that, she would have to kill him or anything like that first. He would protect this book, the
island and his friends from any abuse of that rare information.
Meg, MOAB, Dayna and Rip followed l33t all the way. They listened to all the stories l33t had to tell,
after being translated by Dayna. The stories were quite interesting, explaining a lot about those Battle
Remains for example, but also about the Empty Outpost and Dinosaur Skeleton they passed. He
pointed out some locations in the far distance, which they couldn’t see behind the horizon, like the use
of the Radar Station and dangers around the Robot Spaceship. All these landmarks on the way from
Limnadian to the Big Desert have a history that goes way back to the first civilizations that roamed the
planet of Calypso. At some times MOAB would drop a bomb, and most of the times he hit
underground deposits. The whole group would wait at those moments for him to deplete it. MOAB
stopped emptying his claims after he nearly got too heavy to run with the same speed because of all the
minerals he had to carry with him. He said he would take the same route back to empty them within the
next 24 hours anyway. At other times they visited shopcontainers underway to refill ammo or repair
instruments, like Rip did with his improved fap. The group kept running at a continuous speed. There
was still no reason for them to not reach Nymphtown in time, when they crossed the sandy borders of
the Big Desert.
“While we scan our surroundings for any Longu Dominants, keep in mind they are accompanied by
pretty nasty Merps,” said Rip when they climbed over a new large sandy hill.
“Maybe it’s a good idea when l33t and I interrogate the Longu Dominants, while you and Mo shoot the
surrounding Merps”, Meg said.
“O, yes? And why should we do that, Meg?” asked Rip, who thought this was a way of Meg trying to
get her hands on the Encycalypsopedia as first of the group. Obviously l33t wouldn’t be able to use his
hands for that purpose.
“Well, I just thought the True Faith of Mo and your iMK2 would do a lot more damage on short
distance, then my long range rifle” she replied.
Although he didn’t trust her for one bit, she did
have a point there Rip thought, when l33t
interrupted their quarrel, “That won’t be necessary.
I have known the exact location since I was a kid.
A Longu Prowler was plundering the houses in the
Umbranoid Village years ago. He told me the
location, after I told him the spots in the village
where he could find the most amount of food. It’s
not far away anymore. We only have to climb
these last steep sandy hills and find the plants that
look like vagin.. err.. look like the passage leading
from the opening of the vulva to the cervix of the
uterus in female mammals.”
Dayna laughed, since she was a real female and
translating it all. Strangely Meg didn’t laugh with her, probably because she wasn’t really a female
after all.
L33t continued, smiling, ”Yes, I’m sorry, but that is what those weird plants look like. I suppose the
real name for them is mentioned in the Encycalypsopedia as well, but I have never read it, so I don’t
know the official name for it. You’ll see what I mean when we get there, I’m sure. The book is burried
underneath one of them. I know which one.” Dayna was translating in the first person now.
The group followed l33t going over the top of the last sandy hill.
It didn’t take a long time for them to find the giant strangely shaped
plants at all. Happily there were no mobs around when l33t stopped at
one of the plants. The next moment Dayna said l33t pointed out the
buried ancient book, the long lost Encycalypsopedia, and she picked it
up. She could easily pick it up, although she hadn’t seen it laying there
herself. It was colored in sandy yellow and brown, thus making it pretty
impossible to be seen by human eyes. Once in her hands she started to
turn the pages and read the contents, searching for the solution of her
teleporting problem. MOAB, Meg, l33t and Rip were curiously looking at her, waiting for her to tell
them about the value of the ancient Encycalypsopedia. They didn’t have to wait long, as Dayna said:
“Here! I have it. It’s called ‘An atmospheric disturbance manifested in strong winds accompanied by
lag, crashtodesktops, failing teleports, or other precipitation’. And it continues ‘will need an
adversarial confrontation as through Escape shallt thy enter Reality, followed by a repenetration with
Enter again’.”
MOAB dropped a bomb, while Rip mumbled :”Did we come this far! We get this! OMFG, what does
that old-english bs mean?”
“I know, or at least I think I do,” said Dayna turning the pages some more, “It seems one has to press
Escape – Oh I hate relogs – and press Enter again to get rid off most of the lagstorm effects..”
MOAB started to print his claim next to l33t, as Meg stepped a bit more towards Dayna.
“Is that true? What more information does the book give, Dayna?” Rip asked, interested by this
development. This was some good information. He was sure he had never read anything about this on
any forum before.
“OMG..” Dayna whispered.
“What?” said Meg.
“Yeah, what? Dayna, tell us.”
MOAB stopped excavating his minerals and turned around, “What Dayna? What is it you read?”
“Oh my goodness, here: ‘A snable drops adjusted..”
“What?!?” Meg smiled, trying to read over her shoulder since Dayna didn’t finish her sentence.
“..You will find HoF every two minutes at the following coordinates.. Spaceships will never be able to..
Houses can be used for.. OhMyGod! ”
“Stop!” yelled l33t, “You cannot tell us!”
“Why not?” Meg yelled in his ear, or the spot where it should have been.
“It will disturb all reason to live for Calypso, forgodsake! We wouldn’t need any cross-information
between friends, the Forums would be needless, the whole economy based on investment, skills and
hofs would crash! Everybody would go for themselves, not helping others anymore! Egoïsm rules!”
“We cannot keep this book”, said Dayna as she dropped it back into the sand again.
They all stared at the spot where it came down, not being able to see it laying there anymore, covered
by sand and dust.
“I think you are right”, said Rip.
“And I think you are stupid!”, said Meg as she jumped on the spot and left the universe the second
after.
“She logged out! The bitch!”, said Rip as soon as he understood she could have picked up the
Encycalypsopedia just before she logged out.
“That means I will wait here on this spot, for her to log back in,” said l33t to Dayna “and follow her to
where ever she goes and drops it again.”
“That won’t be needed, l33t, I know where she is now. And the Encycalypsopedia.”
“You do? But how?” asked Rip.
“I think the book is somewhat attached to the person who holds it, or has holded it once. I can see it is
inside the Castle MorningTear by now. It appears on my map as a blinking star. She must have dropped
it in there.”
“But how could she? Shouldn’t she have come here, where we stand, as soon as she logged back in
again?”
“No. Not during Lagstorms. You get back at the point where you were, when everything was all right.
She probably left the Castle Morningtear just before the lagstorms kicked in. It’s the same reason why I
think I can still make it to Nymphtown in time. I am going to relog now, my friends. I figured I will be
back in Fort Troy when I log back in again. If the teleports work, as I think they will be after escaping
to reality, I can transfer myself to Nymph and attend the event. The event that will start in five minutes
from now.” Dayna looked at her friends, and smiled at l33t and MOAB. “Thanks for your help, all”
She gave Rip a hand kiss.
“Our pleasure!” said Rip trying to surpress a massive heartbeat of love, “Good luck! ..Darling.”
Dayna left the universe, and did not come back at the same spot again when she logged back in.
Rip looked at MOAB and said: “I think she’ll do fine now. You follow me to Castle Morningtear,
Mo?”
“You’re damn sure, mate. I am ready to bomb that whole place to the ground, to get that book out of
their hands! KillKillKill!”
“And you? L33t?” asked Rip as he turned to l33t.
“BoooooBooooo.. “
~*~