The Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 4: The Porcelain Citadel

They recover the trail quickly although Adolf stumbles into a copse of grass nettle vines and is badly burned. Soon though they are back on the trail - and overtake a lone traveller - he introduces himself as Varakesh Vamosh, a pilgrim on a holy journey to the Black City. He tells them of various places nearby, and offers them advice on the places they may wish to visit at the Porcelain Citadel. Sissy offers him some Cat Coffee, which he politely accepts. He suggests they might travel together for a time, and they offer him a ride on a horse. 

The Porcelain Citadel

They finally arrive at the Porcelain Citadel, a little rested and well fed on the superior supplies taken from the pursuing Violetlander posse. They find a place to lodge and try to find, with Varakesh's help, a merchant to buy some of their stolen goods. His name is Lazaro Romero, and he runs a vehicle and mechanical repair shop out of the shell of an enormous waste worm. Sissy finds he has a knack for negotiation, and they manage to sell four sacks of their stolen merchandise for $4,000.  Happy to finally have managed to convert some of their salvage/loot into cash, they immediately go on a week long bender, mingling with the immortal and debauched Porcelain Princes. After a week of extreme debauchery and intoxication, Adolf and Dante are exhausted and badly drained, but Sissy wins a cherry pie in a dance contest. Adolf, whose hair turned white  during the gunfight with the Violetlander posse, decides that he can't take the dangers of the Ultraviolet Grasslands, and decides to take his share of the caravan treasure and retire. He sets Vulcan free from his life debt to him, and Vulcan decides he will buy into the caravan and with the agreement of the others, becomes an equal member. 

During their debauch they get to know one of the Princes, Many-Cracks-Five-Body, quite well. Varakesh tells them of a well about a days travel north, where many ancient artefacts were thrown/stored and mentions that a sky key might be amongst them. While carousing the also hear a rumour of a pleasure palace a short way out of the citadel where a Porcelain Prince has died - and their possessions and estate may be up for grabs. They can't resist the lure of a sky key though - this is the reason they were sent from their tribe in the first place after all, so they decide to travel to the well. Sissy buys a couple of healing potions - and Varakesh mentions he has a couple in reserve too, along with a bottle of fine vodka which he says has good restorative properties.

They sell ten horses, as they have an excess now, and with a slimmed down caravan travel north, led by Varakesh. After a day or so he shows them, on a barren plateau, the low stone walled well. It goes down as far as the eye can see. They rig up a block and tackle and some rope, and climb down one by one. Sissy is too afraid to clamber down, but Dante manages to coax him down. Only Vulcan and Varakesh stay up. Those climbing down find a large - well bottom - filled with mud up to about their knees.

On the surface, Varakesh suddenly lets out a metallic scream and his hand melds into a blade - he stabs and slashes at the suprised Vulcan, who shoots Varakesh but instead of blood, the bullet rips away a thin lyer of skin underneath which is mechanical vome tech. Vulcan resists but falls beneath Varakesh's blade - but a red spirit of blood overcomes Vulcan. When he comes to his senses, Varakesh is completely dead and destroyed, and three of the horses have been slaughtered, and the rest scattered across the plateau. Vulcan helps the others clamber back up the well and they recover the horses easily. 

They search Varakesh's body. Aside from the two 'healing' potions - which Sissy quickly identifies as vomish liquid bio malware, and the vodka - which seems to be infected with the same, Varakesh is carrying a large red porcelain or stone sphere, about the size of a cricket ball. They pile all of it, including Varakesh's body, onto the horses and return to the Porcelain Citadel. 

They revisit the merchant Lazaro Romero, and show them their loot. Lazaro is fascinated by the body of Varakesh, and offers them $15,000 for it. They quickly accept, and Lazaro explains that this cleans him out of ready cash, and he can't afford to buy anything else off them. He does tell them that the red sphere is a weapon - a laser blast eye, and shows them how to use it. They store it carefully for future use.

Cashed up, they spend three weeks alternatively resting, healing and carousing. Dante has a run of luck at the gaming tables and finds he has won a Porcelain Walker - a biomechanical vehicle worth quite a lot of money. 

Meanwhile Vulcan has been asking around at the 'Your Life Burns Faster in this Place' party joint, asking about the dead Porcealin Prince. Apparently her (his?) name was Satrasco, and she had hired a wizard to protect her home with wind spirits in mechanical traps, which can be disarmed, but only by freeing the angry spirits within. Three adventuring parties have already tried and have not returned. They decide they will try to raid the pleasure palace. Vulcan manages to buy a pair of rocket boots. Dante becomes fascinated by a set of porcelain power armour and convinces the entire party to buy a set each. They manage, strangely, to trade their remaining horses for a second porcelain walker. The deal is too good to be true, and Sissy knows it, but he accepts anyway. The second show will drop at some point but by then hopefully they will be long gone...

The Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 3: Neanderthal, You're a Desperado

After traveling a while, the caravan gets to know each other a little better. Adolf is irritated by Sissy's way of chewing with his mouth open. Sissy is annoyed by Dante flaunting his elven heritage. Dante is irritated by Adolf's complete lack of self-reflection.

The Ultraviolet Grasslands

On the bright side, though, Adolf admires Dante's very brief toilet breaks, Dante admires sissy's dedication to only killing people who deserve it (he doesn't know about the orphan), and sissy admires Adolf's generosity when buying drinks.

Flush with loot but short on supplies they debate where to go to sell their goods - and decide to return to the Last Chair Salon. They trek a week back to nearly where they came from. At the Salon, they have their horses fed and watered, and try to find a merchant to buy their salvaged goods. They find Frangibar, a local merchant, who can't pay them in cash - but offers to trade them their 9 sacks of salvaged bullion from the well, in return for 1 1/2 sacks of cat coffee. 

For the sake of convenience, they accept. They decide that they can return to the Violet city and sell the cat coffee, upgrade their gear, and then return to the wastes. They set off, and arrive within a day back at the luxuriant shady gates of the Violet City. The guards mildly interrogate them, but their eyes widen when they see the sacks of cat coffee. The guard says this is stolen coffee - he can tell from the branding on the sacks. Sissy tries to argue with them, and finally they reach a compromise - the guards accepts half a sack as a bribe - and the caravan is allowed to keep one sack.

Fuming, they enter the city and set up camp back in Renko's old  slum house, and try to find a buyer for the coffee. But the market is glutted - there are no buyers for the coffee anywhere in the city. They are rapidly running out of ready cash - so Sissy puts word out on the street to try to find more work as an assassin. He hears of a contract to kill Whiskers, a local Cat Lord, but he turns down the contract - it seems very risky. 

The Last Chair Salon

With the last of their cash, they buy some travel supplies - the cheapest nastiest kind - water in flasks, dried dwarven bread, etc. They find out that the cat coffee was stolen from a Cat Lord called Fluffy, and they decide to see if they can shop Frangibar the Merchant. They visit Fluffy's villa, with a small pouch of coffee, and tell her that they know who stole her coffee - but when they explain who, Fluffy is less than impressed - as Fluffy knows Frangibar is simply a middle man and probably an ignorant buyer. He offers them a desultory $20 reward for this information and shows them the door. 

Frustrated and angry, they leave the violet City once more and head to the Last chair Salon, determined to get a refund from Frangibar. They arrive late in the day, and tie their horses up outside Frangibar's store, intent on mayhem. Frangibar greets them warmly but quickly reads their faces, and calls his bodyguard Avros into the room. The demand a refund from Frangibar, who refuses, saying he had no idea the coffee was stolen. Avros draws his gun and cocks it menacingly. In response Adolf quick draws his bolter and blows off Frangibar's head. Avros tries to loose some shots off before fleeing but he is quickly cut down by a barrage of bolter fire. 

Quickly they raid the till - only $50 - and Adolf and Renko push into the back room where they find a large safe - sealed shut. Adolf puts his ear to the safe, and using his knowledge of mechanisms, manages to swiftly crack it. The inside is full of  ancient goods, contraband, and miscellaneous trade goods and salvage. They quickly fill their packs and sacks and leap on their horses and flee the settlement. They're now neanderthal desperadoes.

They push hard westward, using their fast horses to outpace any potential pursuers, taking the high road and the low. After a week or so they meet a group of Lime Nomads, hunters with shiny bright black birds in large nets, travelling the other way. for a moment they worry about having stolen Lime Nomad goods before they remember they already sold those to the late Frangibar. The leader of the Lime Nomads, Viok Perttunen, offers them a deal - he has a rogue Porcelain Slave Body to trade. He explains that the Porcelain Princes are multibody consciousnesses, virtually immortal, and that this is a spare body, that they 'acquired' on the trail. Suspicious and a little cautious, but also very short on ready cash, they decline the deal, but offer Viok Perttunen a stone of coffee as a parting gift. They part on good terms. 

As they reach the High and Low road, and the small watering area there, they realise there is nowhere there that they can buy further supplies. They fill up on water, and they find a high place and check behind them - and they see that there is a large posse of 10 riders behind them - about a days ride behind. Obviously the populace of the Last Chair Salon has assembled an avenging posse to hunt them down.

Sissy digs out his jellyfish and places it in the oasis to try to poison the water supply - but alas, the creature, stressed from the swift travel, is unable to gland enough poison. They have little choice but to hurry westwards, to try to reach the Porcelain Citadel ahead of the posse.

Unfortunately, in their haste, and unfamiliarity with the terrain, they mistake a dry riverbed for the trail, and find themselves very, very lost. They are low on supplies and in deadly danger of starving to death in the wastes. They try to circle out of the gullies to a high point but from there all they can see are endless badlands in the purple haze. 

After many days of searching, with their supplies running ow, they see and here an incredible sight - an entire nomad village, on a large wheeled platform, grinding across the badlands. They watch for a while and then hail the village and ride up to the enormous vehicle. A strange man in Limelander garb hails them - he introduces himself as Beauregarthe, a traveller and leader of this Limelander tribe, and captain of this land vessel. He invites them on board to eat and drink - they eat well and enjoy the village entertainments and fine alcoholic beverages, and then in the morning they get down to business - trying to sell Beauregarthe a sack of their stolen salvage from Frangibar. Beauregarthe is interested- but he has his braves pull their guns and force a sale at 50% of the normal price. The caravan are not too put out by this - they needed the cash anyway, but are annoyed by being put off the village vehicle at gunpoint. 

A Violetlander Posse

Still short on supplies they head off again, looking again for the trail. Finally, with the help of Adolf's vomish bird, they see the trail far off to the south. They head off, and head through various twisted and deep gulleys. 

As they are nearly back on the trail, Adolf has a bad feeling - a rock falls ahead. He sends his bird ahead to see - and sees that the posse has found them, and set up an ambush - five on each side of the gulley, up above, under cover and ready to mow them all down. Using the vome bird as reconnaisance, they carefully back up the gulley, and make their way up a ridge, so they can take out 5 of the posse before the others can catch up.  They check their weapons and then with a whoop and a rush they charge along the ridge top toward the ambushers.

The five ambushers see them and quickly turn around, laying down heavy fire at the charging neanderthals, while the five other ambushers, on the next ridge, realise what is happening and decide to ride down the gulley and help their companions. 

Adolf is filled with blood rage and is hit twice but manages to take out one of the attackers. Sissy and Vulcan ride left, taking the majority of the horses with them into the next gulley, safe from gunfire and with a theoretical clear path to escape. 

Dante takes a bullet to the head and falls to the ground. His spirit leaves his body momentarily but then - he is filled with a war spirit of bloodlust. He rises from the dead, and falls on the posse, slaughtering them all, before charging down the gulley and destroying three of the other posse, with help from Adolf, who is struck by a stray round and rises, alive but in shock, muttering "I'm too old for this shit!"

Two of their pursuers manage to flee and escape. Dante shakes his head and the blood lust clears and he surveys the carnage, but has no memory of it.

Adolf tries to find the fleeing posse members from the sky using the vomish bird, but he can't find them. They gather up the horses of the posse, and their guns and supplies, which amounts to quite a haul, and head back to the trail...

Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 2: The Steppes of the Lime Nomads

Adolf Thatcher, on return to the city, immediately takes to his bed for rest as he is badly hurt from his stair tumble. 

Sissy, the fourth member of the neo-neanderthals, who, unbeknownst to them is a silent killer and assassin, touts for work. He immediately offers to kill for an undercover police cat and ends up in jail. He is stuck overnight but immediately in the morning he insists to the judge that he is part of an oppressed minority, who was merely joking. The judge feels pity for the poor oppressed Bluelander, and accepts his story. He is set free and immediately goes about finding another contract - successfully this time. He is hired to kill a street urchin who is, unknown to the urchin, due to inherit a large amount of money from a distant relative. The next of kin wants the urchin taken out. Sissy agrees, takes payment of $1000, and lures the poor little girl into an alley where he silently and gruesomely garottes her, slices her into little pieces and disposes of her body in the sewers. He spends most of the money on a silver chainsword.

Meanwhile, Renko has worked out the caravan they want - a fast raiders caravan of two horses apiece (for the four of them and the diesel dwarf), two weeks supplies, and some basic kit. They visit Tiddles where Renko makes a gift to Tiddles of the sacks of books they liberated from Calcidus' tower. Tiddles is grateful, and Renko mentions that he has some small talent as a metaphysical engineer, and there are some spells in the books that might be useful to him. Tiddles promises to find some useful spells for him in the tomes as thanks. Renko presents to Tiddles the remains of Hondo Aberdeen, her previous pet. Tiddles is distraught, but not suprised, and vows to take better care of her future pets.

After some discussion and to and fro, the group agree to borrow $3,200 from Tiddles, an amount Tiddles agrees to, with 100% interest due in one year. Tiddles provides them with an intricate carved box - Tiddles will cast a spell at the end of a year and summon the box back to her - at that time (or before) the neo-neanderthals need to ensure there is $6,400 in the box to repay the principal and interest.

Tiddles presents Renko with a scroll with three dimensional transfer calculations - one that allows him to open a portal through a mirror, a second that allows him to use a living being as an interdimensional portal, and a final one that allows him to summon a pre-prepared object from a great distance.

The group pay for their caravan, and then, with the healed Adolf in tow, decide to throw an elaborate leaving party in Renko's slum apartment. It is a week-long revel, most of which they cannot remember. However a few highlights;
1. Sissy's table dancing routine becomes legendary among the townships
2. Adolf gets into a staring match with an eyebiter and loses an eye. However, due to excellent socialised medicine in the Violet City he is provided a replacement eye, with enhanced x-ray powers.
3. Renko and Dante both gain good reputations and hosts and bon-vivants in the townships.

The party drains the last of their resources and they are now utterly broke, aside from Sissy who still has some small dregs of his blood money remaining.

Sissy buys some Felix Whizz and Cat Coffee for the long journey, and just for the experience.

They leave the western gates, a large caravan of ten horses, only lightly laden. They travel swiftly over the western lands, where the Violet City farms and plantations give way to the Ultra infested borderlands. By early afternoon they arrive at a rugged mesa whereby resides the Last Chair Salon. The proprietor, Marsa Vinoble, welcomes them in, and they have their horses washed and watered, while they order a round of yellow beer, and subtly ask around after the Sky Keys, and also any money making opportunities. 

The first thing they hear is that while none of the neer do wells, prospectors and drunken nomads in the place know of the Sky Keys, word on the steppes is that the Porcelain Princes, who are functionally immortal, have long memories, and know a lot about artefacts from the long long ago. They check their map and make a note that they want to travel that way anyway to get to the Black City.

They buy a few drinks for a grizzled old prospector with a mechanical leg, who lets slip a few clues about where wealth might be found. First off, it is common knowledge that in the basement of the Last Chair Salon is a Vome nest-mother, hooked up to a fermentation vat, who is the source of the Yellow Beer. They momentarily plot whether to storm the basement and take the Vome nest mother, but aren't sure whether they have the capacity to carry the stolen Vome nest-mother and still flee at speed. 

They make subtle enquiries and learn of the following leads;
* Along the low and high roads are many dimensional portals left over from a long ago war - many contain mysterious treasures, many lead to certain death
* North of the Lime Nomads trail is a deep cave containing a lush garden occupied by a cave octopus - a traveller years ago told of it, and he carried many salvaged and valuable pieces of biomantic equipment.
* On the high and low road there is a broken potsherd crown, where many crystal artefacts can be excavated

They quickly narrow in on the Octopus' garden - as the interdimensional portals sound very dangerous, and excavating crystal artefacts sounds like hard work. Also, the octopus' cave is the only rumour where actual evidence of treasure recovered has been confirmed. 

They decide to stay the night - Adolf has the power of prophetic lucid dreaming and he uses that to travel in his dreams high above the Lime Steppes past the great northern trail into the badlands. He flies into a gulley where he sees Lime Nomad shamen performing ceremonies in a deep ravine at a yellow spring leading to a deep pool. He sails through the gullies, expertly avoiding the Ultras in the astral plane, and finds himself observing the great semi-robotic octopus in its lair - it is in a great semi submerged spherical cave, surrounded by serpentlings, with piles of long abandoned biomantic equipment, and strange partly human gibbering homunculi scurrying about, like crabs.

Satisfied he has a strong understanding of how to reach the cave, in the morning he alerts the others and they set out along the northern road into the Lime Nomad steppes. 

They travel for half a week, swapping horses frequently and going at a swift pace. They encounter nothin in the barren steppes - not any other traveller, nor any beasts or nomads. They reach the point where Adolf knows the ravine to be, they turn off the road and head across the parched acrid land to the north, and enter dry badlands. 

As they enter the grasslands they disturb a large flock of Vome birds - large greasy looking crows with black glass goggle eyes and mechanical guts. They circle menacingly around the caravan. Adolf uses Vulcan the diesel dwarf to launch him into the air, and he siezes a bird, much to the alarm of the others. Working quickly, he reprograms the birds bioware to be in servitude to him, and links his biotech eye to the bird. He instructs the bird to calm the flock down, and they travel on in safety, with Adolf's new pet in tow.

Adolf guides them to the right ravine, and after a couple of days careful travel they come across a well-travelled ravine, lined with religious drawings and paintings to long lost and obscure but powerful gods. toward the end of the day they come across a widening in the ravine and a yellow spring, where Adolf had dreamed a Lime nomad ceremony - but for now it is deserted. The spring is fresh and yellow, and springs from a crevice and then flows along a short channel into a deep pool. They peer into the pool and see that it goes down a long long way - as far as they can see. Adolf uses his bionic eye to peer into the murk - a few hundred feet down he discerns a considerable pile of treasure - gold, silver, metal - even a cannon. In the pool Adolf sees a couple of weird and aggressive looking biomechanical fish - technopikes.

Sissy decides to send his pet poisonous jellyfish into the pool to see if it can retrieve any of the treasure - but about halfway down the pike tears a piece off it and it quickly rises up to the surface where Sissy retrieves it from the water just in time before the technopike can bite it again.

They debate how they might block the spring and drain the pool. Finally they decide on a plan. Using the dimensional reft scroll, they hack the spout off their samovar and affix it to their hand mirror from their grooming kit, and Renko opens a portal into the mirror, and then they divert the spring into the samovar, which pours into the dimensional hole into the mirror. The scroll refers to the fact that the gate can be unstable after ten minutes so they retreat to a high place and watch - but nothing obvious happens so they camp near the spring overnight. 

By morning the deep well is nearly drained. Adolf and Dante clamber down and over several trips bring up several sacks worth of treasure - coins, bullion, even an ancient silver cannon. They decide to overload the horses, and carefully pack ten sacks of loot. By their calculations they think they can get to the Lime Nomad Steppe in a weeks travel, which is just at the limit of their supplies. They decide that the Octopus' garden will have to wait for another day when they have more time and supplies - by Adolf's calculations it is still five days away.

As they set off, though, it occurs to Adolf, remembering his lucid dream, that these treasures are most likely offerings from the Lime Nomads, who may take a dim view of them trying to sell these treasures at the nearest oasis...

The Ultraviolet Grasslands - Episode 1

A Prophecy

Our noble heroes

For time uncountable the tribes of neo-neanderthals have lived on the fringes of the Azure Lands, in the wildlands bordering the Psychopapacy of the Emerald City. This has been your home since the first humans were sculpted from solar dust by the Faceless Ones in seventeen years of creation. You are of the Tiphani Blue Tribe. The Psychopapists call you degenerates but your people live by the way of the ancient sky spirits and the laws of the medicine men.

Many of your tribe have been visited by the same dream, the same prophecy - the lands on fire, huge lumbering black stones hovering over the land, blanketing the earth in shadow and smoke, the sky and earth on fire and everything between destroyed.

The elders recalled a time when the First Lings destroyed themselves in iron and machinery and the Second Lings told themselves tales of Vile Ones wreaking the destruction to salve their fragile memories. Ab-plastic magics and half-remembered mentalists stood behind the Springtime of the Monarchies, inaugurating gleaming autocracies to replace the corrupt popular dictatorships of earlier times.

At this time your people travelled into the sky. Your shamen visited the Dornic Realms and many remained there, and many more returned with powerful treasures, songs, lore, weapons. But the third and fifth Cerulean Pontiffs combined to establish the great sky bridge, and stole from the Azure Demi-tribes the three sky-keys, and the Rainbow way was lost.

Flodius Bhel, your shaman, undertook the ritual of the Third New Realism, and when he returned he said that warriors from your tribe must travel to the Black City, for scattered along the way are the three sky keys needed to open the Sky Way once more, and visit the ancestors who dwell in the sky once more to seek their help against the great black fire to come.

Episode 1

The shaded lavender plazas of Violet City

Spurred by the prophecy, three pioneers have been sent to travel to the Black City by the Tiphani Blue tribe. After a long journey they arrive at the Violet City, on the shores of the Circle Sea. They are Dante Thunderstone, Adolf Thatcher, and Rupert Templeton Warburg III, accompanied by Adolf's diesl Dwarf, named Vulcan. They pass out of the dusty trails into the  hinterlands of the Violet City, and are greeted at the city gates by their kinsman, Renko Wrangler, who has been sent at great expense to study magic at the Purple Academy, but who has, unknown to the tribe, dropped out due to a complete lack of magical acuity. 

Tired after their long journey, Renko gives them refreshments in his comfortable shack in the Bluelander slums, and then shows his kinsmen the Violet City - the cool promenades, the lavendar scented streets, the purple river and the cool clean fountains. Renko explains the relationships between the cats and their pets.

In the cool shade of a plaza they discuss how to assemble a caravan to enter the Ultraviolet Grasslands. It requires much more money than they have - so they decide whether to seek an employer, or a patron. Renko suggests they go to the Western Gate, where the caravans assemble, and see if they can find work. They cross the city, and come across fighting pits where confiscated dogs are set to fight street rats. Adolf wins ten dollars but scorn from the onlooking cats by betting on a dog to win. Dante loses twenty dollars betting on a street rat.

They arrive at the western gate and Renko sees a cat pet and her cat look them over, think better of it, and move on. Renko runs after them, and says they are prepared to work - and adds that they are cheap, strong, dumb and expendable. The cat, Tiddles, and her pet, Zidano Verovoko, are amused, and they invite the group to dine with them that evening at Tiddles' palace in the Street of Lavender, to discuss an employment opportunity.

In the meantime, in anticipation of future employment, they go shopping for gear. Renko buys a flail and Adolf purchases boiled leather armour. Adolf wishes to learn more about the three Sky-Keys they must find, and tries to find a temple to the Neo-Neanderthal Sky temple, and manages to make contact with a heavily naturalised Violet city Neo-Neanderthal, who tells him to be at a certain address at midnight to meet others of their cult.

Tiddles and Zidano Verovoko

They arrive at Tiddles' house, and are invited in by an oiled and shiny muscular majordomo. They are offered wine, and they accept a glass each - none of them have ever had wine before. Adolf manages to sneak a bottle of expensive looking wine into his robes without anyone noticing. After a while the majordomo invites them to dinner - they are seated at a table with Zidano Verovoko and Tiddles. 

They are fed, wined, and given dancing girls. Tiddles explains that there is a place a day tot he south where there are continual lightning storms. Tiddles' previous pet, Hondo Aberdeen, went missing there three months ago while hunting for the blue mice that Tiddles craves so much. She is certain Hondo is dead, but she would like to know his fate and give him a proper burial. Tiddles agrees that if they perform this service for her, she will lend them the funds for a caravan. They agree, and Tiddles invites them to spend the night at her palace, and they all accept the offer of dancing girls as companions for the night. They are all dazzled by the unimaginable luxury and decadence they are exposed to. Tiddles gives them a wax mask of Hondo Aberdeen, to help them identify him.

The next morning they have a light breakfast and set off. Adolf manages to sell his stolen bottle of wine for fifty dollars. They travel along the rim of the Circle Sea, through dull Bluelander peasant villages and Cat coffee plantations, until they reach foothills and the sound and sight of distant thunder and lightning. They camp in the foothills, noting the blue mice that run through their camp. 

The mysterious tower
on a lightning blasted plateau

In the morning they hike into the foothills, until they reach the top of a hill overlooking the sea. At the centre of the plateau is a tower, carved as many faces, with brassy metallic tentacles or branches reaching up to the sky. Every few minutes lightning strikes the ground - a circle about 800m in diameter is continually blasted by lightning. About 20m from the tower is the burned and dessicated body of a person. 

Adolf sets aside his metal objects and runs into the blasted circle, scoops up the body and returns to the perimeter with most of it. They examine it but it is so badly blasted, rotted and eaten that they can't confirm it's identity. however, they find a satchel with a small cage with twenty dead mice in it, which convinces them that this is Hondo, and he met his end via lightning while trying to approach the tower.

Renko advocates they have achieved their mission and should return home. Adolf says he is going to explore the tower and the others agree to go with him. They dash to the tower - Adolf leaves his axe behind but the others all carry their weapons and metal items - Dante is nearly struck but all make it to the front door in safety. Adolf reaches out for the metel snake door handle, and it writhes like a living snake and bites his hand. He starts back, and Dante beats it flat with his axe. They kick the door in. 

They stumble into a small empty room, sparkling clean. Adolf uses Dante's axe to hack off a leg off a plastic composite coffee table to use as a club. Thus armed they proceed to explore the tower. They enter a second room - this one is filthy with dust and dirt. A sideboard contains four bottles of wine, which Adolf loads into a sack. At the far end is a vertical shaft with a dial with seven settings. They examine some boxes under stairs and find a trap door. They unbolt the trap door and see a large room full of polymer plastic containers. Adolf and Dante drop down into the room and examine the boxes - they all appear to be full of varieties of human bones. They examine six or seven boxes and then give up and clamber out of the room. Renko takes a shoulderbone as a souvenir. Each bone they see is labelled with some sort of identifier in an unknown language. 

They decide to go down the stairs. In the basement there are various horrible imlements and dissected animal bodies. There is a human body, dissected and then sewn up with gold thread. There is an alcove with several mirrors. Renko looks in one mirror and is blasted with a searing ray of light. He staggers back. Meanwhile Adolf examines the gold thread looking to see if he can untie it. But as he looks closely, he sees something writhe under the skin. Dante immediately lunges forward and beats the abdomen of the corpse several times before they beat a hasty retreat. They stagger up the stairs and then decide to explore the upper stairs. 

On the next floor are several rooms, empty except for pots and pans and long abandoned furniture - then they see more stairs heading upwards - and a thin trickle of blood coming dow the stairs. They find at the top a plastic polymer door with a single glowing panel. Blood is leaking from behind the panel. Adolf tries to smash the panel but fails.  Renko rushes the door and smashes it open. The door swings back and a torrent of blood rushes out of the room and sweeps Adolf down the stairs - he tumbles down the entire flight and is badly hurt. 

Calcidus affecting a casual pose

In the room is a strange sight - a man, seated cross legged inside a circle of salt. It looks like the room had been filled to a depth of about half a meter with blood, but the circle and the man had been untouched. The man says to them, "Ah finally!" He explains that he is Calcidus and he has been trapped in the circle for some time - he just needs them to smudge the salt circle so he can leave. He offers to pay them $100 to do so. Renko demurs - he asks Calcidus about the dissected bodies. Calcidus looks briefly angry, but composes himself and increases his offer to $1000. The group discuss what to do and finally decide to leave Calcidus where he is for now - at which point Calcidus explodes with rage, cursing them with all manner of foul language and blasting them with powerful spells and energy weapons (all of which are safely contained within the circle). A book is open on a stand in the room and Renko quickly takes it. They quickly leave Calcidus to rage ineffectually within his circle. He promises to kill them and everyone they have ever met, and all manner of tortures.

They go back to the ground floor, and manage to decipher the strange markings at the shaft - it is a lift, and they summon a glowing disk, stand on it, and it takes them up to the top floor. There they see a mechanism with a button and four switches, and a large silver dome which Adolf, who has experience with some ancient and alien mechanisms, identifies as a telescope. Adolf realises this could be a way to find clues as to their sky-dwelling ancestors. They press the button and then flick the switches in order. The roof of the tower slowly opens and a telescope slowly extends out. The lightning and thunder, which had been intermittent, now picks up the pace and strikes occur several times a minute. A brazier of coal spontaneously lights up. Renko looks in the telescope and sees a distant world - he zooms into the surface and sees a red light, that has shone from the telescope, form a red circle on the ground. Weird creatures, blue and slimy and mossy, gather around the red light and begin to writhe and dance rhythmically. Meanwhile Dante has been examining the book they took from Calcidus' room and finds reference to the telescope  just in time he pulls Renko back from the lens as a red ray shoots from the telescope and evaporates a large disk of the floor where Renko had been standing. They quickly flick back the switches and retreat to the floor below as the telescope retracts and the roof closes. In the floor below they see a small room with a table and two chairs - an Ultra in the form of a man appears in one chair and offers to wager the soul of one of the adventurers in return for opening the door. Bravely, or rather foolishly, Adolf agrees, and quickly demolishes the ghost in a game of chess. With a cry of despair, the ultra disappears, as does the blue force field around the door. Inside they find an extensive library - shelves and shelves of esoteric tomes. They quickly take as many sacks as they can of books - trying to narrow down those that may relate to the nature of the sky keys and by setting aside most of their supplies and rations, manage to stuff 9 sacks worth and stagger out of the tower under a heavy load. 

They manage to reach the rim of the blasted plateau without being struck by lightning, although the traverse takes them longer as they stagger under the heavy weight of the books. Adolf decides ha can't also carry the wines he has - they open one and share it amongst themselves (except for Vulcan who drinks only Diesel) to celebrate their great find. Then they remember they also must return the body they found to Tiddles, so they bury many books alongside the wine and take up the lightning scorched corpse, and return to the Violet city...